














I 


! 



SULAMITH 




SULAMITH 

A PROSE POEM OF ANTIQUITY 


By 

Alexandre Kuprin 


Translated from the Russian by 
B. Guilbert Guerney 


AUTHORIZED EDITION 


> * 
) > > 


NICHOLAS L. BROWN 

NEW YORK 1923 



Copyright, 1923 
By 

NICHOLAS L. BROWN 




First Edition 



AUTHOR’S DEDICATION : 


To Ivan Alexeievich Bunin 


A. Kuprin 


TRANSLATOR'S DEDICATION : 

I dedicate this translation to 

I. K. 


B. G. G. 


Set me as a seal upon thy 
heart, as a seal upon thy 
arm: for love is strong as 
death; jealousy is cruel as 
the grave: the coals thereof 
are coals of fire, which 
hath a most vehement 
flamed 1 ! 


THE SONG OF SONGS 









I. 

King Solomon had not yet attained 
middle age—forty-five; yet the fame of 
his wisdom and comeliness, of the gran¬ 
deur of his life and the pomp of his 
court, had spread far beyond the limits 
of Palestine. In Assyria and Phoenicia; 
in Lower and Upper iEgypt; from an¬ 
cient Tabriz to Yemen and from Ismar 
unto Persepolis; on the coast of the 
Black Sea and upon the islands of the 
Mediterranean,—all uttered his name in 
wonder, for there was none among the 
kings like unto him in all his days. 

In the four hundred and eightieth 
year after the children of Israel were 
come out of iEgypt, in the fourth year 
of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the 


9 


10 


SULAMITH 


month of Zif, t2] did the king undertake 
the erection of the great temple of the 
Lord in Mount Moriah, and the build¬ 
ing of his palace in Jerusalem. Four¬ 
score thousand stonesquarers and three¬ 
score and ten thousand that bare bur¬ 
thens wrought without cease in the 
mountains, and in the outskirts of the 
city; while ten thousand hewers that cut 
timber, out of a number of eight and 
thirty thousand, were sent each month, 
by courses, to Lebanon, where they spent 
a month in labour so arduous that they 
rested for two months thereafter. Thou¬ 
sands of men tied the cut trees into flotes, 
and hundreds of seamen brought them 
by sea to Jaffa, where they were fash¬ 
ioned by Tyrians, skilled to work at 
turning and carpentry. Only at the rear¬ 
ing of the pyramids of Khephren, Khufu, 
and Mencheres, at Ghizeh, had such an 
infinite multitude of labourers been used. 

Three thousand and six hundred of- 


SULAMITH 


11 


ficers oversaw the works; while Azar- 
iah, the son of Nathan, was over the offi¬ 
cers,—a cruel man and an active, con¬ 
cerning whom had sprung up a rumour 
that he never slept, devoured by the 
fire of an internal, incurable disease. As 
for the plans of the palace and the tem¬ 
ple; the drawings of the columns, the 
fore-court, and the brasen sea; the de¬ 
signs for the windows; the ornaments 
of the walls and the thrones,—they had 
all been created by the master builder 
Hiram-Abiah of Sidon, the son of a 
worker in brass of the tribe of Naphtali. 

After seven years, in the month of 
Bul,t 3 l the temple of the Lord was com¬ 
pleted; and after thirteen years, the pal¬ 
ace of the king also. For cedar logs 
out of Lebanon, for cypress and olive 
boards, for almug, shittim, and tarshish 
woods, for great stones, costly stones, and 
hewed and polished stones; for purple, 
scarlet, and for byssin broidered in gold; 


SULAMITH 


.12 

for stuffs of blue wool; for ivory and 
red-dyed rams’ skins; for iron, onyx, and 
the vast quantity of marble; for precious 
stones; for the chains, the wreaths, the 
cords, the tongs, the nets, the lavers, and 
the flowers and the lamps and the can¬ 
dlesticks,—all, all of gold; for the hinges 
of gold for the doors, and the nails of 
gold, weighing sixty shekels each; for 
the basons and platters of beaten gold; 
for ornaments,—graven and in mosaic; 
for the images of lions, cherubim, oxen, 
palms and pineapples, both hewn in 
stone and molten,—for all these did Sol¬ 
omon give Hiram, King of Tyre, who 
bore the same name as the master 
builder, twenty cities and hamlets in the 
land of Galilee, and Hiram found the 
gift insignificant, with such splendour 
had been built the temple of the Lord, 
and the palace of Solomon, and the little 
palace at Millo for the king’s wife, the 
beautiful Queen Astis, daughter to Shi- 


SULAMITH 


13 


shak, Pharaoh of iEgypt; while the red¬ 
wood which later went for the balus¬ 
trades and stairs of the galleries, for the 
musical instruments and for the bind¬ 
ings of the sacred books, had been 
brought as a gift to Solomon by the 
Queen of Sheba, the wise and beautiful 
Balkis, together with such a quantity of 
aromatic incense, sweet smelling oils, 
and precious perfumes, as had never 
been seen before in the land of Israel. 

With each year did the riches of the 
king increase. Thrice a year did his 
ships return to harbour: the Tarshish, 
that sailed the Mediterranean, and the 
Hiram, that sailed the Black Sea. They 
brought out of Africa ivory and apes and 
peacocks and antelopes; richly adorned 
chariots out of Egypt; live tigers and 
lions, as well as animal pelts and furs, 
out of Mesopotamia; snow-white steeds 
out of Cuth; gold dust out of Parvaam 
that came to six hundred and three- 


14 


SULAMITH 


score talents in one year; redwood, 
ebony and sandalwood out of the land 
of Ophir; gay rugs of Asshur and Ca- 
lah, of marvelous designs,—the friendly 
gifts of King Tiglath-Pileser; artistic 
mosaic out of Nineveh, Nimroud, and 
Sargon; wondrous figured stuffs out of 
Khatuar; goblets of beaten gold out of 
Tyre; stained glass out of Sidon; and 
out of Punt, which is near Bab-el- 
Medebu, those rare perfumes,—nard, 
aloes, calamus, cinnamon, saffron, am¬ 
ber, musk, stacte, galbanum, Smyrna 
myrrh, and frankincense,—for the pos¬ 
session of which the Egyptian pharaohs 
had more than once embarked upon 
bloody wars. 

As for silver, it was accounted of as 
common stone in the days of Solomon, 
and redwood was of no more value than 
the common sycomores that grow in the 
low plains in abundance. 

Pools of stone, lined with porphyry, 


SULAMITH 


15 


and marble cisterns and cool fountains 
did the king build, commanding the wa¬ 
ter to be conveyed from mountain springs 
that plunged down into the Kidron’s tor¬ 
rent; while around the palace he planted 
gardens and groves, and cultivated a 
vineyard in Baal-hamon. 

And Solomon had forty thousand 
stalls for mules and for the horses for 
his chariots, and twelve thousand for his 
cavalry; barley also and straw for the 
horses were brought daily from the pro¬ 
vinces. Thirty measures of fine flour, and 
threescore measures of other meal; an 
hundred baths of different wines; ten 
fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the 
pastures, and three hundred sheep, not 
counting harts and roebucks, and fal- 
lowdeer, and fatted fowl,—all this, pass¬ 
ing through the hands of twelve officers, 
went daily for the table of Solomon, as 
well as for his court, his retinue, and his 
guard. Threescore warriors, out of a 


16 


SULAMITH 


number of five hundred of the most stal¬ 
wart and most valiant in all his army, 
held watch by turns in the inner cham¬ 
bers of the palace. Five hundred buck¬ 
lers, covered with plates of gold, did the 
king command to be made for his body¬ 
guards. 


II. 

Whatsoever the eyes of the king 
might desire, he kept not from them; 
and withheld not his heart from any 
joy. Seven hundred wives had the king, 
and three hundred concubines, without 
counting slaves and dancers. And all 
of them did Solomon charm with his 
love, for God had endowed him with 
such an inexhaustible strength of pas¬ 
sion as was not given to ordinary men. 
He loved the white-faced, black-eyed, 
red-lipped Hittites for their vivid but 
momentary beauty, that bursts into blos¬ 
som just as early and enchantingly, and 
fades just as rapidly as the flower 
of the narcissus; the swarthy, tall, vehe¬ 
ment Philistines, with wiry, curly locks, 


17 


18 


SUL AM IT II 


who wore golden, tinkling armlets upon 
their wrists, golden hoops upon their 
shoulders, and broad anklets, joined by a 
thin little chain, upon both ankles; gen¬ 
tle, diminutive, lithe Ammorites formed 
without a blemish, whose faithfulness 
and submissiveness in love had passed 
into a proverb; women out of Assyria, 
who put their eyes in painting to make 
them seem more elongated, and who ate 
out with acid blue stars upon their fore¬ 
heads and cheeks; well-schooled, gay and 
witty daughters of Sidon, who knew well 
how to sing and dance, as well as to play 
upon harps, lutes and flutes, to the ac¬ 
companiment of tabours; xanthochroous 
women of iEgypt, indefatigable in love 
and insane in jealousy; voluptuous Ba¬ 
bylonians, whose entire body underneath 
their raiment was as smooth as marble, 
because they eradicated the hair upon 
it with a special paste; virgins of Bak- 
tria, who stained their nails and hair a 


SULAMITH 


19 


fiery-red colour, and wore wide, loose 
trowsers; silent, bashful Moabites, whose 
magnificent breasts were cool on the sul¬ 
triest nights of summer; care-free and 
profligate Ammonites, with fiery hair, 
and flesh of such whiteness that it glowed 
in the dark; frail, blue-eyed women with 
flaxen hair, and skin of a delicate 
fragrance, who were brought from the 
north, through Baalbec, and whose 
tongue was incomprehensible to all the 
dwellers in Palestine. The king loved 
many daughters of Judaea and Israel 
besides. 

Also shared he his couch with Balkis- 
Makkedah, the Queen of Sheba, who 
had surpassed all women on earth in 
beauty, wisdom, riches, and her diversi¬ 
fied art in passion; and with Abishag 
the Shunamite, who had warmed the old 
age of David,—a kindly, quiet beauty, for 
whose sake Solomon had put to death 
his elder brother Adonijah, at the hands 


20 


SULAMITH 


of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. 

And also with the poor maiden of the 
vineyard, by the name of Sulamith, 
whom alone among all women the king 
had loved with all his heart. 

Solomon made himself a litter of the 
best cedar wood, with pillars of silver, 
with arm-rests of gold in the form of 
recumbent lions, with a covering of 
purple Tyrian stuff, while the entire 
inner side of the covering was orna¬ 
mented with gold embroidery and with 
precious stones,—the love-gifts of the 
women and virgins of Jerusalem. And 
when well-built black slaves bore Solo¬ 
mon among his people on grand festal 
days, truly was the king glorious, like the 
lilies that are in the Valley of Sharon! 

Pale was his face; his lips like unto 
a vivid thread of scarlet; his wavy locks 
a blueish black, and in them—the adorn¬ 
ment of wisdom—gleamed gray hairs, 
like to the silver threads of mountain 


SULAMITH 


21 


streams, falling down from the dark 
crags of Hermon; gray hairs glistened 
in his dark beard also, curled, after the 
custom of the kings of Assyria, in regu¬ 
lar, small rows. 

As for the eyes of the king, they were 
dark, like the darkest agate, like the 
heavens on a moonless night in summer; 
while his eye-lashes, that spread upward 
and downward like arrows, resembled 
dark rays around dark stars. And there 
was no man in all the universe who could 
bear the gaze of Solomon without cast¬ 
ing down his eyes. And the lightnings 
of wrath in the eyes of the king would 
prostrate people to the earth. 

But there were moments of heartfelt 
merriment, when the king would grow 
intoxicated with love, or wine, or the 
delight of power, or when he rejoiced 
over words of wisdom or beauty, fitly 
spoken. Then his lashes would be softly 
half-lowered, casting blue shadows upon 


22 


SULAM1TH 


his radiant face, and in the king’s eyes 
would kindle the warm flames of a kind¬ 
ly, tender laughter, just like the play 
of black diamonds; and whosoever might 
behold this smile was ready to yield up 
body and soul for it—so indescribably 
beautiful was it. The mere name of 
King Solomon, uttered aloud, stirred the 
hearts of women, like the fragrance of 
spilt myrrh that recals nights of love. 

The king’s hands were soft, white, 
warm and beautiful, like a woman’s; 
but they held such an excess of life en¬ 
ergy that, by the laying on of his palms 
upon the temples of the sick, the king 
cured headaches, convulsions, black mel¬ 
ancholy, and demoniacal possession. 
Upon the index finger of his left hand 
the king wore a gem of blood-red asteria 
that emitted six pearl-coloured rays. 
Many centuries did this ring number, 
and upon the reverse side of its stone was 
graven an inscription, in the tongue of 


SULAMITH 23 

an ancient, vanished people: “All things 
pass away.” 

And so great was the sway of Solo¬ 
mon’s soul that even beasts submitted to 
it; lions and tigers crawled at the feet 
of the king, rubbing their muzzles 
against his knees, and licking his hands 
with their rough tongues, whenever he 
entered their quarters. And he, whose 
heart found joy in the dazzling play of 
precious stones, in the fragrance of 
sweet-smelling ./Egyptian resins, in the 
soft touch of light stuffs, in sweet music, 
in the exquisite taste of red, sparkling 
wine playing in a chased Ninuanian 
chalice,—he also loved to stroke the 
coarse manes of lions, the velvety backs 
of black panthers, and the tender paws 
of young, speckled leopards; loved to 
hear the roar of wild beasts, to see their 
powerful and superb movements, and to 
feel the hot feral odour of their breath. 

Thus did Jehoshaphat, the son of 


24 SULAMITH 

Ahilud, the historian of his days, depict 
King Solomon. 


III. 


“Because thou hast not asked for thy¬ 
self long life; neither hast asked riches 
for thyself, nor hast asked the life of 
thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself 
understanding to discern judgment; be¬ 
hold, I have done according to thy 
words; lo, I have given thee a wise and 
understanding heart: so that there was 
none like thee before thee, neither after 
thee shall any arise like unto thee.” 

Thus spake God unto Solomon, and 
through His word did the king come to 
know the structure of the universe and 
the working of the elements; to fathom 
the beginning, end, and midst of all ages; 
to penetrate the mystery of the eternal, 
wave-like and rotating recurrence of 


25 


26 


8 ULAMITH 


events; from the astronomers of Byblos, 
Acre, Sargon, Borsippa and Nineveh 
did he learn to watch the yearly orbits 
of the stars and the changes in their po¬ 
sitions. He knew also the nature of all 
animals and divined the feelings of 
beasts; he understood the source and di¬ 
rection of winds, the different proper- 
ties of plants, and the potency of healing 
herbs. 

The designs in the heart of man are 
deep waters, but even them could the 
king fathom. In the words and voice, 
in the eyes, in the motions of the hands, 
he read the innermost mysteries of souls 
as plainly as the characters of an open 
book. And because of that, from all ends 
of Palestine, there came to him a vast 
multitude of people, imploring judg¬ 
ment, advice, help, the settlement of 
some dispute, as well as the solving of 
incomprehensible portents and dreams. 
And men would marvel at the profund- 


BULAMITH 


27 


ity and finesse of Solomon’s answers. 

Three thousand proverbs did Solomon 
compose, and his songs were a thousand 
and five. He dictated them to two skilled 
and rapid scribes: Elihoreph and Ahiah, 
the sons of Shisha, and afterwards col¬ 
lated what both had written. Always 
did he clothe his thoughts in choice ex¬ 
pressions, for a word fitly spoken is like 
an apple of gold in a bowl of translucent 
sardonyx;^] and also for that the words 
of the wise are as goads, and as nails fas¬ 
tened by the masters of assemblies, which 
are given from one Shepherd. “A word 
is a spark in the motion of the heart,”— 
thus saith the king. And Solomon’s wis¬ 
dom excelled the wisdom of all the chil¬ 
dren of the east country, and all the wis¬ 
dom of the Egyptians. For he was 
above all men in wisdom; wiser than 
Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and 
Chalcol, and Dardra, the sons of Mahol. 
But he was already beginning to weary 



28 


SULAMITH 


of the beauty of ordinary human wis¬ 
dom, and no longer did it have its for¬ 
mer value in his eyes. With a restless 
and searching mind did he thirst after 
that higher wisdom, which the Lord 
possessed in the beginning of His way, 
before His works of old, set up from 
everlasting, from the beginning, or ever 
the earth was; that wisdom which was 
His great artificer when He set a com¬ 
pass upon the face of the depth. And 
Solomon found it not. 

The king mastered the teachings of 
the magi of Chaldaea and Nineveh; the 
science of the astrologers of Abydos, 
Sais, and Memphis; the secrets of the 
Assyrian sorcerers, mystagogues, and 
epopts, and of the fatidicae of Baktria 
and Persepolis; and he had become con¬ 
vinced that their knowledge was but the 
knowledge of mortals. 

Also did he seek for wisdom in the 
occult rites of ancient pagan faiths, and 


SULAMITH 


29 


for that reason visited idol-temples and 
offered up oblations to the mighty Baal- 
Lebanon, who was honoured under the 
name of Melkart,—the god of creation 
and destruction, the patron of naviga¬ 
tion in Tyre and Sidon,—called Ammon 
in the Oasis of Sibakh, where his idol 
would nod his head to indicate the routes 
to festal processions; called Bel by the 
Chaldaeans, and Moloch by the Canaan- 
ites. He also bowed down before his 
spouse,—the dread and passionate As- 
tarte, who bore in other temples the 
names of Ishtar, Isaar, Baaltis, Ashera, 
Istar-Belet, and Atargatis. He libated 
holy oil and burnt incense before Isis 
and Osiris of iTgypt,—sister and brother, 
joined in wedlock while still in the womb 
of their mother and there conceiving the 
god Horus; and before Derketo, the 
pisciform Tyrian goddess; and before 
Anubis of the dog’s head, the god of em¬ 
balming; and before the Babylonian 


30 


SULAMITH 


Cannes; and Dagon of the Philistines; 
and the Assyrian Abdenago; and Utsa- 
bu, the Ninevehian idol; and the sombre 
Kybele; and Bel Marduk, the patron of 
Babylon,—the god of the planet Jupiter; 
and the Chaldaean Or,—the god of eter¬ 
nal fire; and the mystic Omorca, the first 
mother of the gods, whom Bel had 
cloven in two parts, creating heaven and 
earth out of them, and out of her head, 
men; and the king bowed down also be¬ 
fore the goddess Anaitis, in whose hon¬ 
our the virgins of Phoenicia, Lydia, Ar¬ 
menia and Persia gave up their bodies 
to passers-by, as a sacred offering, at the 
threshold of temples. 

But the king found in the pagan rites 
nought save drunkenness, night orgies, 
lechery, incest, and lusts contrary to na¬ 
ture; and in their dogmas he perceived 
vain discourse and deception. But he 
forbade none of his subjects to offer up 
sacrifices to a favourite god, and he even 



&U LAM IT II 


31 


built upon the Mount of Olives an idol- 
temple for Chemosh, the abomination 
of Moab, at the supplication of the beau¬ 
tiful, pensive Ellaan, the Moabite, the 
then favorite wife of the king. One 
thing only could not Solomon abide and 
pursued with death,—the bringing of 
children in sacrifice. 

And he saw in his seekings that that 
which befalleth the sons of men befall- 
eth beasts, even one thing befalleth them: 
as one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they 
have all one breath; so that a man hath 
no preeminence above a beast. And the 
king understood, that in much wisdom 
is much grief: and he that increaseth 
knowledge increaseth sorrow. He also 
learned that even in laughter the heart 
is sorrowful; and the end of mirth is 
heaviness. And so one morning he dic¬ 
tated to Elihoreph and Ahiah: 

“ ‘All is vanity of vanities and vexa¬ 
tion of spirits’—thus saith Ecclesiastes.” 


32 


SULAMITE 


But at that time the king did not yet 
know that God would soon send him a 
love so tender and ardent, so devoted and 
beautiful,—more precious in itself than 
riches, fame, and wisdom; more precious 
than life itself, for it values not even life, 
nor hath fear of death, 


IV. 


The king had a vineyard at Baal- 
hamon, upon the southern slope of Bath- 
El-Khav, to the south of the idol-temple 
of Moloch; thither did the king love to 
withdraw in the hours of his great medi¬ 
tations. Pomegranate,- olive,- and wild 
apple-trees, interspersed with cedars and 
cypresses, bordered it on three sides 
upon the mountain, while on the fourth 
it was fenced off from the road by a high 
stone wall. And other vineyards, lying 
about, also belonged to Solomon; he let 
them out unto keepers, each one for a 
thousand pieces of silver. 

Only with the dawn came to an end 
in the palace the magnificent feast which 
the King of Israel was giving in honour 


33 


34 


SULAMITH 


of the emissaries of the King of Assyria, 
the good Tiglath-Pileser. Despite his 
fatigue, Solomon could not fall asleep 
this morn. Neither wine nor hippocras 
had befogged the stout heads of the As¬ 
syrians, nor loosened their canny tongues. 
But the penetrating mind of the wise 
king had already forestalled their plans, 
and was, in its turn, already weaving a 
fine political net, wherein he would en¬ 
mesh these proud men with supercilious 
eyes and of flattering speech. Solomon 
would be able to preserve the necessary 
amity with the potentate of Assyria, yet 
at the same time, for the sake of his eter¬ 
nal friendship wih Hiram of Tyre, 
would save from pillage the latter’s king¬ 
dom, which, with its countless riches, 
hid in subterranean vaults underneath 
narrow streets, had for a long time drawn 
the covetous gazes of oriental sovereigns. 

And so at dawn Solomon had com¬ 
manded himself to be borne to Mount 


SULAMITH 


35 


Bath-El-Khav; had left the litter far 
down the road, and is now seated alone 
upon a simple wooden bench, above the 
vineyard, under the shade of the trees, 
still hiding in their branches the dewy 
chill of night. The king has on a simple 
white mantle, fastened at the right shoul¬ 
der and at the left side by two ^Egyptian 
clasps of green gold, in the shape of 
curled crocodiles,—the symbol of the 
god Sebekh. The hands of the king lie 
motionless upon his knees, while his 
eyes, overshadowed by deep thought, 
unwinking, are directed toward the east, 
in the direction of the Dead Sea,—there, 
where from the rounded summit of An- 
aze the sun is rising in the flame of dawn. 

The morning wind is blowing from 
the east and spreads the fragrance of the 
grape in blossom,—a delicate fragrance, 
like that of mignonette and mulled wine. 
The dark cypresses sway their slender 
tops pompously and pour out their resi- 


36 


SULAMITH 


nous breath. The silvery-green leaves 
of the olives hurriedly converse among 
themselves. 

But now Solomon arises and hearkens 
carefully. An endearing feminine voice, 
clear and pure as this dewy morn, is 
singing somewhere not far off, beyond 
the trees. The simple and tender mo¬ 
tive runs on and on, of its own accord, 
like a ringing rill in the mountains, re¬ 
peating the five or six notes, always the 
same. And its unpretentious, exquisite 
charm calls forth a smile in the eyes of 
the touched king. 

Nearer and nearer sounds the voice. 
Now it is already here, alongside, be¬ 
hind the spreading cedars, behind the 
dark verdure of the junipers. Then the 
king cautiously parts the branches with 
his hands, quietly makes his way between 
the prickly branches, and comes out upon 
an open place. 

Before him, beyond the low wall, 


SULAMITH 


37 


rudely built of great yellow stones, the 
vineyard spreads upward. A girl, in a 
light garment of blue, walks between 
the rows of vines, bending down over 
something below, and again straighten¬ 
ing up, and she is singing. Her ruddy 
hair flames in the sun: 

The breath of the day is coolness, 

And the shadows flee away. 

Turn, my beloved, 

And be thou like a roe or a young hart, 

Within the clefts of the rocks.. . . 

Thus sings she, tying up the grape¬ 
vines, and slowly descends, nearer and 
nearer the stone wall behind which the 
king is standing. She is alone, none sees 
nor hears her; the scent of the grapes in 
blossom, the joyous freshness of the 
morning, and the warm blood in her 
heart are like wine unto her, and now 
the words of the naive little song are 


38 


SULAMITH 


bom spontaneously upon her lips and 
are carried away by the wind, to be for¬ 
gotten forever: 


Take us the foxes, 

The little foxes 
That spoil the vines: 

For our vines have tender grapes. 


In this manner does she reach the very 
wall, and, without noticing the king, 
turns about and walks on, climbing the 
hill lightly, along the neighbouring row 
of vines. Now her song sounds less dis¬ 
tinctly: 

Make haste, my beloved, 

And be thou like to a roe or a young hart 
Upon the mountains of spices. 


But suddenly she grows silent and 
bends so low to the ground that she can 


SULAMITH 


39 


not be seen behind the vines. 

Then Solomon utters in a voice that 
caresses the ear: 

“Maiden, show me thy face; let me 
hear thy voice anew.” 

She straightens up quickly and turns 
her face to the king. A strong wind 
arises at this second and flutters the light 
garment upon her, suddenly making it 
cling tightly around her body and be¬ 
tween her legs. And the king, for an in¬ 
stant, until she turns her back to the 
wind, sees all of her beneath the raiment, 
as though naked,—tall and graceful, in 
the vigorous bloom of thirteen years; 
sees her little, round, firm breasts and 
the elevations of her nipples, from which 
the cloth spreads out in rays; and the vir¬ 
ginal abdomen, round as a bason; and 
the deep line that divides her legs from 
the bottom to the top, and there parts 
in two, toward the rounded hips. 

“For sweet is thy voice, and thy coun- 


40 


SULAMITH 


tenance comely,” says Solomon. 

She draws nearer and gazes upon the 
king with trembling and with rapture. 
Her swarthy and vivid face is inexpres¬ 
sibly beautiful. Her heavy, thick, dark- 
red hair, into which she has stuck two 
flowers of the scarlet poppy, covers her 
shoulders in countless resilient ringlets 
and spreads over her back, and, trans¬ 
pierced by the rays of the sun, glows in 
flame, like aureate purple. A necklace 
which she had made herself out of some 
red, dried berries, naively winds twice 
about her long, dark, slender neck. 

“I did not notice thee!” she says gent¬ 
ly, and her voice sounds like the song 
of a flute. ‘Whence didst thou come?” 

“Thou sangst so well, maiden!” 

She bashfully casts down her eyes and 
turns red, but beneath her long lashes 
and in the corners of her lips trembles 
a secret smile. 

“Thou sangst of thy dear. He is as 


SULAMITH 


41 


light as a roe, as a young hart upon the 
mountains. For he is very fair, thy 
dear,—is not that the truth, maiden?” 

Her laughter is ringing and musical, 
as though silver were falling upon a 
golden platter. 

“I have no dear. It is but a song. I 
have yet had no dear ...” 

For a minute they are silent, and in¬ 
tently, without smiling, gaze at each 
other. . . Birds loudly call one another 
among the trees. The maiden’s bosom 
quickly rises and falls under the worn 
linen. 

“I _ do believe thee, beautiful one. 
Thou art so fair ...” 

“Thou dost mock me. Behold, how 
black I am ...” 

She lifts up her small, dark arms, and 
the broad sleeves lightly slide down to¬ 
wards her shoulders, baring her elbows, 
that have such a slender and rounded 
outline. 


42 


SULAMITH 


And she says plaintively: 

“My brethren were angry with me; 
they made me the keeper of the vine¬ 
yard,—and now behold how the sun hath 
scorched me.” 

“O, nay, the sun hath made thee still 
more fair, thou fairest among women. 
Lo, thou hast smiled,—and thy teeth are 
like white twin-lambs, which come up 
from the washing, and none among them 
hath a blemish. Thy cheeks are like the 
halves of a pomegranate within thy 
locks. Thy lips are scarlet,—yea, plea¬ 
sant to gaze upon. As for thy hair . . . 
Dost know what thy hair is like? Hast 
thou ever beheld a flock of sheep come 
down from Mount Gilead at eve? It 
covers all the mountain, from summit 
to foot, and from the light of the even¬ 
ing glow and from the dust it seems even 
as ruddy and as wavy as thy locks. Thine 
eyes are as deep as the two fishponds in 
Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim. 


SULAM1TH 


43 


O, how fair art thou! Thy neck is 
straight and graceful, like the tower of 
David! . . ” 

‘‘Like the tower of David!” she re¬ 
peats in rapture. 

“Yea, yea, thou fairest among women. 
A thousand bucklers hang upon the 
tower of David, all shields of vanquished 
chieftains. Lo, I hang my shield also 
upon thy tower ...” 

“O, speak on, speak on ... ” 

“And when thou didst turn around in 
answer to my call, and the wind arose, 
I did see beneath thy raiment thy two 
nipples and methought: Here be two 
young roes that are twins, which feed 
among the lilies. This thy stature was 
like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to 
clusters of grapes.” 

The girl cries out faintly, hides her 
face with her palms, and her bosom with 
her elbows, and blushes so that even her 
ears and neck turn crimson. 


44 


SULAMITH 


“And I saw thy hips. They are 
shapely, like a precious vase, the work 
of the hands of a cunning workman. 
Take away thy hands, therefore, maiden. 
Show me thy face.” 

She submissively let her hands drop. 
A deep, golden radiance glows from the 
eyes of Solomon and casts a spell over 
her, make$ her head dizzy, and in a 
sweet, warm tremour streams over the 
skin of her body. 

“Tell me, who art thou?” she says 
slowly, in perplexity. “Never have I 
seen any like to thee.” 

“I am a shepherd, my beauty. I graze 
my splendid flocks of white lambs upon 
the mountains, where the green grass is 
pied with narcissi. Wilt thou not come 
with me, unto my pasture?” 

But she quietly shakes her head: 

“Canst thou think that I will believe 
this? Thy face has not grown rough 
from the wind, nor is it scorched by the 


SULAMITH 


45 


sun, and thy hands are white. Thou 
hast on a costly chiton, and the buckle 
upon it is worth the yearly rental that 
my brothers bring for our vineyard 
to Adoniram, the king’s tax-gatherer. 
Thou hast come from yonder, from be¬ 
yond the wall. Thou art, surely, one of 
the men near to the king? Meseems I 
saw thee once upon the day of a great 
festival; I even remember running after 
thy chariot.” 

“Thou hast guessed it, maiden. It is 
hard to be hid from thee. And verily, 
why shouldst thou be a wanderer nigh 
the flocks of the shepherds? Yea, I am 
one of the king’s retinue. I am the chief 
cook of the king. And thou didst see 
me when I rode in the chariot of Ammi- 
nadib on the gala-day of Passover. But 
why dost thou stand distant from me? 
Draw nearer, my sister! Sit down here 
upon the stones of the wall and tell me 
something of thyself. Tell me thy 


46 


SULAMITH 


name.” 

“Sulamith,” she says. 

“Then, Sulamith, why have thy broth¬ 
ers grown wroth with thee?” 

“I am ashamed to speak of it. They 
received moneys from the sale of their 
wine, and sent me to the city to buy 
bread and goat-cheese. But I . . . ” 

“And thou didst lose the money?” 

“Nay, still worse. . . ” 

She bends her head low and whispers: 

“Besides bread and cheese I bought a 
little of attar of roses,—oh, so little!— 
from the ^Egyptians in the old city.” 

“And thou didst keep this from thy 
brethren?” 

“Yea. ...” 

And she utters in a barely audible 
voice: 

“Attar of roses hath so goodly a smell!” 

The king caressingly strokes her little 
rough hand. 

“Surely, thou must be lonesome, all 



SULAMITH 


47 


alone in thy vineyard?” 

“Nay, I work, I sing. . . At noon food 
is brought me, and at evening one of my 
brothers relieves me. At times I dig 
for the roots of the mandragora, that 
look like litle mannikins. . . The Chal- 
daean merchants buy them from us. It 
is said they make a sleeping potion out 
of them. . . Tell me, is it true that the 
berries of the mandragora help in love?” 

“Nay, Sulamith, only love can help in 
love. Tell me, hast thou a 1 father or a 
mother?” 

“Only a mother. My father died two 
years ago. My brethren are all older 
than I,—they are from the first mar¬ 
riage; only my sister and I have sprung 
from the second.” 

“Is thy sister as comely as thou?” 

“She is little. She is but nine.” 

The king laughs quietly, embraces 
Sulamith, draws her to him, and whis¬ 
pers into her ear: 


48 


SULAMITH 


“Therefore, she hath no such breast as 
thine? A breast as proud, as warm? .. ” 

She is silent, burning with shame and 
happiness. Her eyes glow and grow 
dim, with the mist of a happy smile over 
them. The king feels the riotous beat¬ 
ing of her heart within his hand. 

“The warmth of thy garments hath 
a goodlier smell than myrrh, than nard,” 
he is saying, avidly touching her ear 
with his lips. “And when thou breath- 
est, the smell of thy nostrils is like that 
of apples unto me. My sister, my be¬ 
loved, thou hast ravished my heart with 
one glance of thy eyes, with one chain 
of thy neck.” 

“O, gaze not upon me!” implores Su- 
lamith. “Thine eyes stir me.” 

But of her own accord she bends back¬ 
ward and lays her head upon Solomon’s 
breast. Her lips glow over the gleam¬ 
ing teeth, her eyelids tremble with in¬ 
tense desire. Solomon’s lips cling av- 


SULAMITH 


49 


idly to her enticing mouth. He feels 
the flame of her lips and the slipperiness 
of her teeth, and the sweet moistness of 
her tongue; and he is all consumed of 
an unbearable desire, such as he has 
never yet known in his life. 

Thus passes one minute; then two. 

“What dost thou with me!” says Su- 
lamith faintly, closing her eyes. 

But Solomon passionately whispers 
near her very mouth: 

“Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the 
honeycomb; honey and milk are under 
thy tongue. . . O, come away with me, 
speedily.' Here, behind the wall, it is 
dark and cool. None shall see us. The 
green is soft here underneath the 
cedars.” 

“Nay, nay, leave me. I desire it not, 
I can not.” 

“Sulamith. . . thou dost desire it, thou 
dost desire it. . . Come to me, my sister, 
my beloved!” 


50 


SULAMITH 


Some one’s steps resound below, upon 
the highway, below the wall of the vine¬ 
yard, but Solomon detains the fright¬ 
ened girl by her hand. 

“Tell me, quickly,—where dwellest 
thou? This night shall I come to thee,” 
he is hurriedly saying. 

“Nay, nay, nay. . . I shall not tell thee 
this. Let me go. I shall not tell thee.” 

“I shall not let thee go, Sulamith, till 
thou dost tell. . . . My desire is unto 
thee!” 

‘‘It is well, I shall tell thee. . . But 
first promise not to come this night. . . 
Also, come thou not the following night 
. . . nor the night after that . . .My king! 
I charge thee by the roes and the hinds 
of the field, that thou stir not up thy be¬ 
loved till she please!” 

“Yea, I pledge thee this . . . Where is 
thy dwelling, Sulamith?” 

, “If on the way to the city thou dost 
pass over the Kidron, upon the bridge 


SULAMITH 


51 


above Siloam, thou shalt see our dwell¬ 
ing nigh the spring. There are no other 
dwellings there.” 

“And which is thy window there, Su- 
lamith?” 

“Why shouldst thou know this, be¬ 
loved? O, gaze not thus upon me. Thy 
gaze casts a spell over me . .. Do not kiss 
me . . . Beloved! Kiss me again . . .” 

“But which is thy window, my only 
one?” 

“The window on the south side. Ah, 
I must not tell thee this ... A small, high 
window with a lattice.” 

“And doth the lattice open from with¬ 
in?” 

“Nay, it is a fixed window. But a- 
round the corner is a door. It leads 
directly into the room where I sleep 
with my sister. But thou hast promised 
me! . . My sister sleeps lightly. O, 
how fair art thou, my beloved! Truly, 
hast thou not promised?” 


52 


SULAMITH 


Solomon quietly smoothes her hair 
and cheeks. 

“I shall come to thee this night,” he 
says insistently. “At midnight I shall 
come. Thus, thus shall it be. I desire 
it.” 

“Beloved!” 

“Nay. Thou shalt await me. But 
have no fear, and put thy trust in me. I 
shall cause thee no grief. I shall give 
thee such joy compared with which all 
things upon earth are insignificant. Now 
farewell. I hear them coming after 
me.” 

“Farewell, my beloved . . . O, nay, go 
not yet! Tell me thy name, — I know 
it not.” 

For a moment, as though undecided, 
he lowers his lashes, but immediately 
raises them again. 

“The King and I have the same name. 
I am called Solomon. Farewell. I 
love thee.” 


V. 

Radiant and joyous was Solomon up¬ 
on this day, as he sat upon his throne in 
the hall of the House at Lebanon and 
meted out justice to the people who came 
before him. 

Forty columns, four in a row, sup¬ 
ported the ceiling of the Hall of Judg¬ 
ment, and they were all faced with cedar 

and terminated in capitals in the form 

/ 

of lilies; the floor consisted of cypress 
boards, all of a piece; nor was the stone 
upon the walls to be seen anywhere for 
the cedar finish, ornamented with gold 
carving, shewing palms, pineapples, and 
cherubim. In the depth of the hall, 
with its triple-tiered windows, six steps 
led up to the elevation of the throne, and 


53 


54 


SULAMITH 


upon each step stood two bronze lions, 
one on each side. The throne itself was 
of ivory with gold incrustation and with 
elbow-rests of gold, in the form of re¬ 
cumbent lions. The high back of the 
throne was surmounted by a golden disc. 
Curtains of violet and purple stuffs 
hung from the ceiling down to the floor 
at the entrance to the hall, dividing off 
the entry, where between the columns 
thronged the plaintiffs, supplicants, and 
witnesses, as well as the accused and the 
criminals under a strong guard. 

The king had on a red chiton, while 
upon his head was a simple, narrow 
crown of sixty beryls, set in gold. At 
his right hand stood the throne for his 
mother, Bathsheba; but of late, owing 
to her declining years, she rarely showed 
herself in the city. 

The Assyrian guests, with austere, 
black-bearded faces, were seated along 
the walls upon benches of jasper; they 


SULAMITH 


55 


had on garments of a light olive colour, 
broidered at the edges with designs of 
red and white. While still at home, in 
their native Assyria, they had heard so 
much of the justice of Solomon that they 
tried to let no single word of his slip by, 
in order to tell later of the judgment of 
the King of the Israelites. Among 
them sat the commanders of Solomon’s 
armies, his ministers, the governors of 
his provinces, and his courtiers. Here 
was Benaiah, at one time executioner to 
the king; the slayer of Joab, Adonijah, 
and Shimei,—a short, corpulent old 
man, with a sparse, long, gray beard; his 
faded, blueish eyes, rimmed by red lids 
that seemed turned inside out, had a 
look of senile dullness; his mouth was 
open and moist, while his fleshy, red 
lower lip drooped down impotently, and 
was slightly trembling. Here also were 
Azariah, the son of Nathan, — a jaund¬ 
iced, tall man, with a lean, sickly face 


56 


SULAMITH 


and dark rings under his eyes; and the 
*good-natured, absent-minded Jehosha- 
phat, historiographer; and Ahishar, who 
was over the court of Solomon; and 
Zabud, who bore the high title of the 
King’s Friend; and Ben-Abinadab, 
which had Taphath, the eldest daughter 
of Solomon, to wife; and Ben-Geber, 
the officer over the region of Argob, 
which is in Bashan: to him pertained 
threescore cities, surrounded by walls, 
with gates of brasen bars; and Baanah, 
the son of Hushai, at one time famed for 
his skill in casting a spear to the distance 
of thirty parasangs; and many others. 
Sixty warriors, their helmets and shields 
gleaming, stood in a rank to the left of 
the throne and the right; their head of¬ 
ficer this day was the handsome Eliab, 
of the black locks, son of Ahilud. 

The first to come before Solomon with 
his complaint was one Achior, a lapi¬ 
dary by trade. Working in Bel of 


SULAMITH 


57 


Phoenicia he had found a precious stone, 
had cut and polished it, and had asked 
his friend Zachariah, who was setting 
out for Jerusalem, to give the stone to 
his—Achior’s—wife. After some time 
Achior also returned home. The first 
thing that he asked about upon beholding 
his wife was the stone. But shje was 
very much amazed at her husband’s 
question, and repeated under oath that 
she had received no stone of any sort. 
Whereupon Achior set out for an ex¬ 
planation to his friend Zachariah, but he 
asseverated, and also to an oath, that he 
had, immediately upon arrival, given 
the stone over as instructed. He even 
brought witnesses, who affirmed having 
seen Zachariah give the stone in their 
presence to the wife of Achior. 

And now all four,—Achior, Zacha¬ 
riah, and the two witnesses,—were stand¬ 
ing before the throne of the King of 
Israel. 


58 


SULAMITH 


Solomon gazed into the eyes of each 
one in turn and said to the guard: 

“Lead each one to a separate chamber, 
and lock up each one apart.” 

And when this was done, he ordered 
four pieces of unbaked clay to be 
brought. 

“Let each one of them,” willed the 
king, “fashion out of clay that form 
which the stone had.” 

After some time the moulds were 
ready. But one of the witnesses had 
made his mould in the shape of a horse’s 
head, as precious stones were usually 
fashioned; the other, in the shape of a 
sheep’s head; only two of them—Achior 
and Zachariah—had their moulds alike, 
resembling in form a woman’s breast. 

And the king spake: 

“Now it is evident even to one blind 
that the witnesses are bribed by Zacha¬ 
riah. And so, let Zachariah return the 
stone to Achior, and together with it pay 


SULAMITII 


59 


him thirty shekels, of this city, of law 
costs, and give ten shekels to the priests 
for the temple. As for the self-revealed 
witnesses, let them pay into the treasury 
five shekels each for bearing false wit¬ 
ness. 

Three brothers then drew nigh to 
Solomon’s throne; they were at court 
about an inheritance. Their father had 
told them before his death: “That ye 
may not quarrel at division, I myself 
shall apportion ye in justice. When I 
die, go beyond the knoll that is in the 
midst of the grove behind the house, and 
dig therein. There shall ye find a box 
with three divisions: know, that the top¬ 
most is for the eldest brother; the middle 
one for the second; the lowest for the 
youngest.” And when, after his death, 
they had gone, and had done as he had 
willed, they had found that the topmost 
division was filled to the top with golden 
coins, whereas in the middle one were 


60 


SULAMITH 


lying only common bones, and in the 
lowest naught but pieces of wood. And 
so among the younger brothers arose en¬ 
vy for the eldest, and enmity; and in 
the end their life had become so un¬ 
bearable that they decided to turn to the 
king for counsel and judgment. And 
even here, standing before the throne, 
they could not refrain from mutual re¬ 
criminations and affronts. 

The king shook his head, heard them 
out, and spake: 

“Cease quarreling; a stone is heavy, 
and the sand weighty, but a fool’s wrath 
is heavier than them both. Your father 
was, it is plain to see, a wise man and a 
just, and he has expressed his wishes in 
his testament just as clearly as though 
it had been consummated before an 
hundred witnesses. Is it possible that 
ye have not surmised at once, ye sorry 
brawlers, that to the eldest brother he 
left all his moneys; to the second, all his 


&ULAMITH 


61 


cattle and all his slaves; while to the 
youngest,—his house and plow-land. 
Depart, therefore, in peace; and be no 
longer enemies among yourselves.” 

And the three brothers—but recently 
enemies—with beaming faces bowed to 
the king’s feet and walked out of the 
Hall of Judgment arm in arm. 

And the king decided also another suit 
at inheritance, begun three days ago. A 
certain man, dying, had said that he was 
leaving all his goods to the worthier of 
his two sons. But since neither one of 
them would consent to call himself the 
worse one, they had therefore turned to 
the king. 

Solomon questioned them as to their 
pursuits, and, having heard them an¬ 
swer that they were both hunters with 
the bow, he spake: 

“Return home. I shall order the 
corpse of your father to be stood up 
against a tree. We shall first see which 



62 


SULAMITH 


one of you shall hit his breast more truly 
with an arrow, and then decide your 
suit.” 

Now both brothers had returned in 
the custody of a man sent by the king 
for their surveillance. He it was whom 
the king questioned about the contest. 

“I have fulfilled all that thou hast 
commanded,” said his man. “I stood the 
corpse of the old man against a tree, and 
gave each brother his bow and arrows. 
The elder was the first to shoot. At a 
distance of an hundred and twenty ells 
he hit just the place where, in a living 
man, the heart beats.” 

“A splendid shot,” said Solomon. 
“And the younger?” 

‘‘The younger . . . Forgive me, O 
King,—I could not insist upon thy com¬ 
mand being fulfilled exactly. . . The 
younger did make his string taut, but 
suddenly lowered the bow to his feet, 
turned around, and said, weeping: ‘Nay, 



SULAMITH 


63 


this I can not do. . . I will not shoot at 
the corpse of my father.’ ” 

“Therefore, let the estate of his father 
belong to him,” decided the king. “He 
has proven the worthier son. As for the 
elder, if he desire, he may join the num¬ 
ber of my body-guards. I have need of 
such strong and rapacious men, sure of 
hand and true of eye, and with a heart 
grown over with wool.” 

Next three men came before the king. 
Carrying on a mutual traffic in merchan¬ 
dize, they had amassed much money. 
And so, when the time had come for 
them to journey to Jerusalem, they had 
sewn up the gold in a leathern belt and 
had set out on their way. On the road 
they had spent a night in a forest, and, 
for safe-keeping, had buried the belt in 

i _ 

the ground. But when they awoke in 
the morning, they found no belt in the 
place where they had put it. 

They all accused one another of the 




64 SULAMITH 

secret theft, and since all three seemed 
to be men of exceeding cunning, and 
subtile of speech, the king therefore said 
unto them: 

“Ere I decide your suit, hearken unto 
that which I shall relate to you. A cer¬ 
tain fair maiden promised her beloved, 
who was setting out upon a journey, to 
await his return, and to yield her vir¬ 
ginity to none save him. But, having 
gone away, he within a short while mar¬ 
ried another maiden, in another city, 
and she came to know of this. In the 
meantime, a wealthy and kind-hearted 
youth in her city, a friend of her child¬ 
hood, paid court to her. Constrained by 
her parents she durst not, for shame and 
fear, tell him of her pact, and took him 
to spouse. But when, at the conclusion 
of the marriage feast, he led her to the 
bed-chamber, and would lay down with 
her, she began to implore him: ‘Allow 
me to go to the city where my former be- 


SULAMITH 


65 


loved dwelleth. Let him relieve me of 
my vow; then shall I return to thee, and 
do all thy desire!’ And since the youth 
loved her exceedingly, he did agree to 
her request, allowed her to go, and she 
went. On the way a robber fell upon 
her, despoiled her, and was about to 
ravish her. But the maiden fell down 
on her knees before him, and, in tears, 
implored him to spare her virtue, tell¬ 
ing the robber all that had befallen her, 
and her reason for travelling to a strange 
city. And the robber, having heard her 
out, was so astounded by her faithfulness 
to her word, and so touched by the good¬ 
ness of her bridegroom, that not only did 
he let the girl depart in peace, but also 
returned to her the valuables he had ta¬ 
ken. Now I ask you, who of all these 
three did best before the countenance 
of God,—the maiden, the bridegroom, 
or the robber?” 

And one of the plaintiffs said that the 


66 


SULAMITH 


maiden was the most worthy of praise, 
for her steadfastness to her oath. An¬ 
other marvelled at the great love of her 
bridegroom; the third, however, found 
the action of the robber the most mag¬ 
nanimous one. 

And the king said to the last: 

“Therefore, it is even thou who hast 
stolen the belt with the common gold, 
for thou art by nature covetous, and dost 
desire that which is not thine.” 

But this man, having given his trav¬ 
elling staff to one of his companions, 
spake, raising his hands aloft as though 
for an oath: 

“I witness before Jehovah that the 
gold is not with me, but him!” 

The king smiled and commanded one 
of his warriors: 

“Take this man’s rod and break it in 
half.” 

And when the warrior had carried out 
Solomon’s order, gold coins poured out 


SULAMITH 


67 


upon the floor, for they had been con¬ 
cealed within the hollowed-out stick; as 
for the thief, he, struck by the wisdom 
of the king, fell down before his throne 
and confessed his misdeed. 

There also came into the House of 
Lebanon a woman, the poor widow of a 
stone-cutter, and she spake: 

“I cry for justice, O King! For the 
last two dinarii left me I bought flour, 
put it into this large earthen bowl, and 
started to carry it home. But a strong 
wind suddenly arose and did scatter 
my flour. O wise king, who shall bring 
back this my loss? I now have naught 
wherewith to feed my children.” 

“When was this?” asked the king. 

“It happened this morning, at dawn.” 

And so Solomon commanded that 
there be summoned to him several mer¬ 
chants, whose ships were to set out this 
day with merchandise for Phoenicia, by 
way of Jaffa. And when, in alarm, they 


68 


SULAMITH 


appeared in the Hall of Judgment, the 
king asked them: 

“Did ye pray God, or the gods, for a 
favourable wind for your ships?” 

And they answered: 

“Yea, O King. We did so. And our 
offerings were pleasing to God, for He 
did send us a propitious wind.” 

“I rejoice on your account,” said Solo¬ 
mon. “But the same wind has scattered 
a poor woman’s flour that she was carry¬ 
ing in a bowl. Do ye not deem it just, if 
ye have to recompense her?” 

And they, made glad that the king 
had summoned them only for this, at once 
filled the bowl by casting into it small 
and large silver coin. And when, with 
tears, she began to thank the king, he 
smiled radiantly and said: 

“Wait, this is not yet all. This morn¬ 
ing’s wind has bestowed joy upon me as 
well, which I did not expect. And 
therefore, to the gifts of these mer- 


8U LAM IT II 


G9 


chants, I shall add my kingly gift also.” 

And he commanded Adoniram, the 
treasurer, to put on top of the money of 
the merchants enough gold coin to cover 
the silver entirely out of sight. 

Solomon desired to see none unhappy 
on this day. He distributed more re¬ 
wards, pensions, and gifts than he some¬ 
times did within a whole year, and he 
pardoned Ahimaaz, the governor of the 
land of Naphtali, against whom his 
wrath had flamed before, because of his 
lawless levies; and he commuted the 
faults of many who had transgressed the 
law, nor did he overlook any of the pe¬ 
titions of his subjects,—save one. 

When the king was passing out from 
the House at Lebanon through the small 
southern door, one in a garment of yel¬ 
low leather stood up in his path,—a 
squat, broad-shouldered man, darkly- 
ruddy and morose of face, with a black, 
bushy beard, with a neck like a bull’s, 


70 


SULAMITH 


and an austere gaze from underneath 
shaggy, black eye-brows. This was the 
high priest of Moloch’s temple. He ut¬ 
tered but one word in a supplicating 
voice: 

“King! . . ” 

In the bronze belly of his god were 
seven divisions: one for meal, another 
for doves, the third for sheep, the fourth 
for rams, the fifth for calves, the sixth 
for beeves; but the seventh, meant for 
living infants brought by their mothers, 
had long stood empty at the interdict of 
the king. 

Solomon walked in silence past the 
priest, but the latter stretched out his 
hands after him and exclaimed with 
supplication: 

“King! I adjure thee by thy joy! . . . 
Show me this kindness, O king, and I 
shall reveal to thee what danger threat¬ 
ens thy life.” 

Solomon made no reply; and the eyes 


SULAMITH 


71 


of the priest, who had clenched his pow¬ 
erful hands into fists, followed him to 
the exit with a ferocious glare. 


VI. 

At nightfall Sulamith went to that 
spot in the old city where, in long rows, 
stretched the shops of the money-chang¬ 
ers, usurers, and dealers in sweet-smell¬ 
ing condiments. There she sold to a 
jeweller for three drachmas and one 
dinar her only valuable,—her ear-rings 
for festal days; of silver, in the form of 
rings, each with a little golden star. 

Then she paid a visit to a seller of 
perfumes. In the deep, dark, stone 
niche, in the midst of jars with gray 
Arabian amber, packets of frankincense 
from Lebanon, bunches of aromatic 
herbs, and phials with oils, was sitting 
an /Egyptian, a castrate,—old, obese, 
wrinkled, immobile, all fragrant him- 



SULAMITH 


73 


self; his legs tucked under him, and 
blinking his lazy eyes. He carefully 
counted out of a Phoenician flask into a 
little clay flagon just as many drops of 
myrrh as there were dinarii among all 
the moneys of Sulamith; and when he 
had finished this task he said, gathering 
up with the stopper the remnant of the 
oil around the neck of the bottle, and 
laughing slyly: 

“Swarthy maiden, beautiful maiden! 
When this day thy beloved shall kiss thee 
between thy breasts and say: ‘How fra¬ 
grant is thy body, O my beloved!’—re¬ 
call me at that moment. I have poured 
over three extra drops for thee.” 

And so, when night had come, and the 
moon had risen over Siloam, blending 
the blue whiteness of its houses with the 
black blueness of the shadows and the 
dull green of the trees, Sulamith did 
arise from her humble couch of goats’- 
wool and hearkened. All was quiet in 


74 


SULAMITH 


the house. Her sister was breathing 
evenly upon the floor, nigh the wall. 
Only outside, in the wayside bushes, the 
cicadas chirped stridently and passion¬ 
ately; and the blood throbbed noisily in 
her ears. The shadow of the window- 
lattice, etched by the light of the moon, 
lay, sharp and oblique, upon the floor. 

Trembling with timidity, expectation, 
and happiness, Sulamith loosened her 
garments, let them down to her feet, 
and, stepping over them, was left naked 
in the middle of the room, facing the 
window, in the light of the moon falling 
through the bars of the lattice. She 
poured the thick, sweet-smelling myrrh 
upon her shoulders, upon her bosom, 
upon her abdomen; and, fearing to lose 
even one precious drop, began to rub the 
oil over her legs, under her arm-pits, and 
about her neck. And the smooth, slip¬ 
pery touch of her palms and elbows 
against her body compelled her to 


SULAMITB 


75 


shiver with sweet anticipation. And, 
smiling and trembling, she gazed out of 
the window, where, beyond the lattice, 
two poplars showed,—dark on one side, 
silvered on the other,—and whispered to 
herself: 

“This is for thee, my love; this is for 
thee, my beloved. My beloved is the 
chiefest among ten thousand, his head is 
as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, 
and black as a raven. His lips are most 
sweet; yea, he is all desire. This is my 
beloved, and this is my brother, O 
daughters of Jerusalem! . . ” 

And now, fragrant with myrrh, she 
lay down upon her couch. Her face is 
turned toward the window; her hands, 
like a child, she has squeezed between 
her knees; her heart fills the room with 
its loud beating. Much time passes. 
Scarce closing her eyes, she is plunged 
into dozing, but her heart keeps vigil. 
As in a dream, it seems to her that her 


76 


8ULAMITH 


dear is lying beside her. In a joyous 
fright she casts off her drowsiness; she 
seeks her beloved near her on the couch, 
but finds no one. The moon’s design 
upon the floor has crept nearer the wall, 
is dwindled and more oblique. The ci¬ 
cadas are calling; the Brook of Kidron 
babbles on monotonously; the doleful 
chant of a night watchman is heard in 
the city. 

“What if he comes not to-day?” 
thinks Sulamith; “I did implore him,— 
and what if he hath suddenly obeyed 
me? . . I charge you, O ye daughters of 
Jerusalem, by the roses and lilies of the 
field: awake not love till it come . . . 
But now my love hath come to me. 
Make haste, my beloved! Thy bride 
awaits thee. Make haste like to a young 
hart upon the mountains of spices.” 

The sand crunches in the yard under 
light steps. And the soul of the maiden 
deserts her. A cautious hand knocks at 


SULAMITH 


77 


the window. A dark face shows on the 
other side of the lattice. The low voice 
of her beloved is heard: 

“Open to me, my sister, my dove, my 
undefiled! For my head is filled with 
dew.” 

But a charmed numbness has suddenly 
taken possession of Sulamith’s body. 
She wants to rise, and can not; wants to 
move her hand, and can not. And, with¬ 
out understanding what is taking place 
with her, she whispers, gazing through 
the window: 

“Ah, his locks are filled with the drops 
of the night! But I have put off my chi¬ 
ton. Flow shall I put it on?” 

‘‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and 
come away. The morn is nigh, flowers 
appear on the earth, and the vines with 
the tender grape give a goodly smell; 
the time of the singing of birds is come, 
and the voice of the turtle dove is heard 
from the mountains.” 


78 


SULAMITII 


“I have washed my feet,” whispers 
Sulamith; “how shall I defile them?” 

The dark head disappears from the 
window-lattide; the resounding steps 
pass around the house and cease at the 
door. The beloved cautiously puts in 
his hand by the hole of the door. His 
fingers can be heard groping for the in¬ 
ner bolt. 

Then does Sulamith rise up, pressing 
her palms hard against her breasts, and 
whispers in affright: 

“My sister sleeps—I fear to awaken 
her.” 

She irresolutely dons her sandals, puts 
a light chiton upon her naked body, 
throws a vail over it, and opens the door, 
leaving marks of myrrh upon the handles 
of the lock. But there is no longer any¬ 
one upon the road, that glimmers white- 
ly in its solitude between the dark 
bushes in the gray murk of morning. 
The beloved had not waited, and was 



SULAMITE 


79 


gone; not even his steps were to be 
heard. The moon has dwindled and 
paled, and floats on high. In the east, 
above the waves of the mountains, the 
sky is putting on a chilly pink before the 
dawn. In the distance the walls and 
towers of Jerusalem glimmer whitely. 

“My beloved! King of my life!” Su- 
lamith calls into the humid darkness. 
“I am here. I await thee . . . Return!” 

But none responds. 

“I will run upon the highway; I shall, 
I shall overtake my beloved,” Sulamith 
says to herself. “I will go about the 
city in the streets and in the broad ways; 
I will seek him whom my soul loveth. 
O that thou wert as my brother, that 
sucked the breasts of my mother! When 
I should find thee without, I would kiss 
thee; yea, I should not be despised. I 
would lead thee, and bring thee into my 
mother’s house. Thou wouldst instruct 
me; I would cause thee to drink of the 


80 


SULAMITII 


juice of my pomegranates. I charge you, 
daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my 
beloved, that ye tell him I am smitten 
by love.” 

Thus does she commune with herself, 
and with light, docile steps runs upon the 
road toward the city. At the Dung Gates 
near the wall, two watchmen that had 
gone about the city at night are sitting 
and dozing in the chill of the morning. 
They awaken and stare with astonish¬ 
ment at the running girl. The younger 
arises and blocks her way with out¬ 
stretched arms. 

‘‘Stay, stay, thou fair!” exclaims he 
with laughter. “Whither so fast? Thou 
hast passed the night on the sly in the 
bed of thy dear and art yet warm from 
his embraces; whereas we have been 
chilled through by the dampness of the 
night. It would be but fair if thou wert 
to sit a while with us.” 

The elder also arises and wants to 


SULAMITH 


81 


embrace Sulamith. He does not laugh; 
he breathes heavily, fast, and with 
wheezing; he is licking his blue lips 
with his tongue. His face, made hideous 
by great scars of healed leprosy, seems 
frightful in the pallid murk. He speaks 
in a voice hoarse and snuffling: 

“Yea, of a truth. What is thy beloved 
more than other men, sweet maiden! 
Shut thy eyes, and thou canst not tell me 
apart from him. I am even better, for, 
of a certainty, I am more experienced 
than he.” 

They clutch at her bosom, her shoul¬ 
ders, her arms and raiment. But Sula¬ 
mith is lithe and strong, and her body, 
anointed with oil, is slippery. She tears 
herself away, leaving in the hands of the 
watchmen her outer vail, and runs back 
still faster along the same road. She 
has experienced neither offense nor fear, 
—she is all swallowed up in thoughts of 
Solomon. Passing by her house, she sees 


82 


SULAMITH 


the door out of which she had just gone 
still left open, a gaping black quadrangle 
in the white wall. But she merely 
catches her breath, shrinks within her¬ 
self, like a young cat, and runs by on 
her tip-toes with never a sound. 

She crosses the Bridge of Kidron, 
avoids the outskirt of the village of Si- 
loam, and by a stony road gradually 
climbs the southern slope of Beth-El- 
Khav, into her vineyard. Her brother is 
still sleeping among the vines, wrapped 
up in a woolen blanket all wet from the 
dew. Sulamith rouses him, but he can 
not awaken, enchained by the morning 
sleep of youth. 

As yesterday, the dawn is flaming 
over Anaze. A wind springs up. The 
fragrance of the grape in blossom streams 
through the air. 

“I shall come away and look upon that 
place of the wall where my beloved 
hath stood,” Sulamith is saying. “I 


SULAMITH 


83 


shall feel with my hands the stones that 
he hath touched; I shall kiss the ground 
beneath his feet.” 

She glides lightly between the vines. 
The dew falls from them, chilling her 
feet and spattering her elbows. And 
now a joyous cry from Sulamith fills 
the vineyard! The king is standing be¬ 
yond the wall. With a radiant face he 
stretches out his arms to meet her. 

More lightly than a bird Sulamith 
surmounts the enclosure, and, without 
words, with a moan of happiness, en¬ 
twines the king. 

Several minutes pass thus. Finally, 
tearing his lips away from her mouth, 
Solomon speaks, enraptured, and his 
voice trembles: 

“Behold, thou art fair, my love; be¬ 
hold, thou art fair!” 

“O, how fair art thou, my beloved!” 

Tears of delight and gratefulness,— 
blessed tears,—sparkle upon Sulamith’s 


SULAMITH 


si 

pale and beautiful face. Languishing 
with love, she sinks to the ground and 
whispers words of madness in a barely 
audible voice. 

“Our bed is green. The beams of our 
house are cedars. . . Kiss me with the 
kisses of thy mouth—for thy love is bet¬ 
ter than wine ...” 

After a brief space Sulamith is lying 
with her head upon Solomon’s breast. 
His left arm is embracing her. 

Bending to her very ear, the king is 
whispering something to her; the king 
is tenderly apologizing, and Sulamith 
reddens from his words and closes her 
eyes. Then, with an inexpressibly lovely 
smile of confusion, she says: 

‘‘My mother’s children made me the 
keeper of the vineyard. . . But mine own 
vineyard have I not kept.” 

But Solomon takes her little swarthy 
hand and presses it fervently to his lips. 

“Thou dost not regret this, Sulamith?” 


SULAAHTH 


85 


“O nay, my king, my beloved. I regret 
it not. Wert thou to arise this minute 
and go from me, and were I condemned 
never to see thee after, I would to the 
end of my life utter thy name with grati¬ 
tude, Solomon!” 

“Tell me one thing else, Sulamith . . . 
Only, I beseech thee, speak the truth, my 
undefiled. . . Didst thou know who I 
am?” 

“Nay,—even now I know it not. Me- 
thought. . . But I am shamed to confess 
it. . . I fear thou wilt laugh at me. . . 
They tell, that here, upon Mount Beth- 
El-Khav, pagan gods do oft wander. . . 
Many of them, it is said, are beautiful... 
And methought: art thou not Hor, the 
son of Osiris; or else some other god?” 

“Nay, I am but a king, beloved. But 
here, upon this spot, I kiss thy dear hand, 
scorched of the sun, and swear to thee 
that never yet—neither in the time of 
first love longings, nor in the days of my 


86 


S 'ULAMITH 


glory—has my heart flamed with such an 
insatiable desire as that which is awak¬ 
ened within me by thy mere smile, by 
the mere touch of thy flaming locks,— 
the mere curve of thy purple lips! Thou 
art comely as the tents of Kedar, as the 
curtains in the temple of Solomon! Thy 
caresses intoxicate me. Behold thy 
breasts—they are fragrant. Thy nipples 
are as wine!” 

“O, yea,—gaze, gaze upon me, be¬ 
loved. Thy eyes arouse me! O, what 
joy!—for thy desire is unto me,—me! 
Thy locks are scented. As a bundle of 
myrrh thou dost lie betwixt my breasts!” 

Time ceases its current and closes over 
them in a solar cycle. Their bed is the 
green; their roof is of cedars; and their 
walls are of cypresses. And the banner 
over their tent is love. 


VII. 


The king had a pool in his palace,— 
an octagonal, fresh pool of white marble. 
Steps of dark-green malachite ran down 
to its bottom. A facing of ^Egyptian 
jasper, snowy-white, with pink, barely 
perceptible little veins, served as a 


frame for the pool. The best of ebony 



walls. Four lions’ heads of pink sar- 
had gone for the ornamentation of the 
donyx cast forth the water in thin jets 
into the pool. Eight mirrors of polished 
silver, the height of a man and of ex¬ 
cellent Sydonian workmanship, were set 
into the walls, between the slender col¬ 
umns of white. 

Before Sulamith was to enter the pool, 
young maid-servants poured aromatic 


87 


88 


SULAMITH 


compounds into it, that made the water 
to turn white and blue and to play with 
all the colours of a milky opal. The fe¬ 
male slaves disrobing Sulamith gazed 
with delight upon her body; and, when 
they had disrobed her, they led her up 
to a mirror. Not a single blemish was 
there upon her beautiful body, made 
aureate like a tawny, ripe fruit by the 
golden down of soft hair. And she, 
gazing upon her naked self in the mir¬ 
ror, turned red and thought: 

“All this is for thee, my king!” 

She came out of the pool fresh, cool, 
and fragrant, covered with quivering 
drops of water. The female slaves put 
upon her a short white tunic of the finest 
/Egyptian linen, and a chiton of precious 
Sargonian byssin, of such a refulgent 
golden colour that the garment seemed 
woven out of the rays of the sun. They 
shod her feet in red sandals made from 
the skin of a young kid; they dried her 


SULAMITH 


89 


dark, flaming locks and bound them with 
strings of large black pearls; and they 
adorned her arms with tinkling brace¬ 
lets. 

In such array did she come before 
Solomon, and the king exclaimed joy¬ 
ously: 

‘‘Who is she that looketh forth as the 
morning, fair as the moon, clear as the 
sun? O, Sulamith, thy beauty is more 
terrible than an army with flaunted ban¬ 
ners! Seven hundred wives have I 
known and three hundred concubines, 
and virgins without number,—thou art 
but one, my fair! The queens shall be¬ 
hold thee and extoll thee, and all wo¬ 
men upon earth shall praise thee. O, 
Sulamith, that day when thou wilt be¬ 
come my spouse and queen shall be the 
happiest my heart has known.” 

Whereupon she walked up to the door 
of carved olive, and, pressing her cheek 
against it, said: 


90 


SULAMITH 


“I desire to be but thy slave, Solomon. 
Behold, I have put my ear to the post of 
the door. I beseech thee,—in accord¬ 
ance with the law of Moses, nail down 
my ear in witness of my voluntary bond¬ 
age before thee.” 

Then Solomon did command to be 
brought out of his treasure house pre¬ 
cious pendants of deep-red carbuncles, 
fashioned to resemble elongated pears. 
He himself put them upon the ears of 
Sulamith, and said: 

“I am my beloved’s, and my beloved 
is mine.” 

And, taking Sulamith by the hand, the 
king brought her to the banqueting 
house, where his companions and fa¬ 
miliars were already awaiting him. 


VIII. 


Seven days had sped since Sulamith 
had stepped into the palace of the king. 
Seven days had she and the king taken 
joyance in love, yet could not be sated 
therewith. 

Solomon loved to adorn his beloved 
with precious things. “How beautiful 
are thy little feet in sandals!” he would 
exclaim in rapture, and, getting down 
on his knees before her, he would kiss 
each toe in turn, and put upon them 
rings with stones so splendid and rare 
that their like was not to be found even 
upon the ephod of a high-priest. Sula¬ 
mith would listen, entranced, whenever 
he discoursed upon the inner nature of 
stones, their magic properties and secret 


91 


92 


SULAMITH 


significations. 

“Here is anthrax, the sacred stone 
from the land of Ophir,” the king would 
say. “It is hot and moist. Behold, it is 
red, like blood, like the evening glow, 
like the blown flower of the pomegran¬ 
ate, like thick wine from the vineyards 
of En-gedi, like thy lips, my Sulamith, 
in the morning after a night of love. 
This is the stone of love, wrath, and 
blood. Upon the hand of a man lan¬ 
guishing in a fever or made’drunk by de¬ 
sire, it waxes warmer and glows with a 
red flame. Put it upon thy hand, my 
beloved, and thou shalt see it enkindle. 
If it be brayed to a powder and taken in 
water, it imparts a glow to the face, al¬ 
lays the stomach, and maketh the soul 
to rejoice. He that weareth it attaineth 
power over men. It is a curative for the 
heart, brain, and memory. But it ought 
not be worn nigh children, for it doth 
arouse the passions of love around it. 


SULAMITE 


93 


“Here is a transparent stone, the col¬ 
our of copper verdigris. In the land of 
the ^Ethiopians, where it is gotten, it is 
called Mgnadis-Phza. It was given me 
by the father of my wife, Queen Astis,— 
by Shishak, the Pharaoh of iEgypt, into 
whose hands it came through a captive 
king. Thou seest,—it is not beautiful; 
yet is its value beyond computation, for 
but four men on earth possess the stone 
Mgnadis-Phza. It possesses the unusual 
property of attracting silver to it, just 
like a covetous man that loveth the me¬ 
tal. I give it thee, my beloved, for that 
thou art not covetous. 

“Gaze upon these sapphires, Sula- 
mith. Some of them resemble in colour 
corn-flowers among wheat; others, an 
autumn sky; others still, the sea in fine 
weather. This is the stone of virginity, 
—chill and pure. During far and diffi¬ 
cult voyages it is placed in the mouth 
to allay thirst. It also cureth leprosy 


94 


SULAMITH 


and all malignant growths. It bestow- 
eth clarity to thoughts. The priests of 
Jupiter in Rome wear it upon the index 
finger. 

‘‘The king of all stones is the stone 
Shamir. The Greeks name it Adamas, 
—which signifieth, the invincible. It is 
the hardest of all substances on earth 
and remains uninjured in the fiercest of 
fires. It is the light of the sun, concen¬ 
trated in the ground and cooled by time. 
Admire it, Sulamith,—it playeth with 
all colours, but in itself remaineth trans¬ 
lucent, like a drop of water. It shineth in 
the darkness of night; but loseth its radi¬ 
ance, even in the daytime, upon the hand 
of a murderer. The Shamir is tied to 
the hand of a woman tortured in heavy 
travail with child; and it is also put 
upon the left hand by warriors setting 
out for battle. He that weareth the 
Shamir findeth favour with kings and 
hath no dread of evil spirits. The Sha- 


SUL AM IT 11 


95 


mir driveth the mottled colour off the 
face, purifieth the breath, giveth quiet 
slumber to lunaticks, and induceth a 
sweat curative of near proximity to 
poison. The Shamir stones are male 
and female; buried deep in the ground 
they are capable of multiplying. 

“The moonstone, pale and mild, like 
the shining of the moon,—it is the stone 
of the Chaldaean and Babylonian magi. 
Before divination it is placed under the 
tongue, and it imparts to them the gift 
of seeing the future. It hath a strange 
tie with the moon, for during a new 
moon it groweth chill and shineth more 
brightly. It is beneficial to woman dur¬ 
ing that year when from a child she is 
becoming a woman. 

“Wear thou this ring with a smaragd 
constantly, my beloved, for the smaragd 
is the favourite stone of Solomon, King 
of Israel. It is green, pure, gay, tender, 
like grass in the spring of the year, and 


96 


SULAMITE 


when one gazeth at it for long the heart 
waxeth radiant; if thou wilt look upon 
it in the morning, all the day shall hold 
no hardship for thee. I shall hang a 
smaragd over thy night couch, my come¬ 
ly one; let it drive evil dreams away 
from thee; let it lull the beating of thy 
heart, and divert black thoughts. Ser¬ 
pents and scorpions come not nigh him 
that weareth a smaragd; but if a smar¬ 
agd be held before the eyes of a serpent, 
water shall flow from them, and con¬ 
tinue flowing, till it go blind. Pounded 
smaragd, together with camel’s milk, is 
given an empoisoned man, that the 
poison may go off in transpiration; 
mixed with attar of roses, smaragd cur- 
eth the bites of venomous reptiles; while 
ground with saffron and applied to ail¬ 
ing eyes it eradicates night blindness. 
It also helps in dysentery and the black 
cough that is incurable by any human 
means.” 


SULAMITH 


97 


The king also bestowed upon his be¬ 
loved Lybian amethysts, whose colour 
resembled early violets, that put forth 
in forests at the foot of the Lybian moun¬ 
tains,—amethysts, possessed of the won¬ 
drous property of curbing wind, molli¬ 
fying wrath, preserving from intoxica¬ 
tion, and helping at the trapping of wild 
beasts; turquoise of Persepolis, that 
bringeth happiness in love, endeth con¬ 
nubial quarrels, turneth away the wrath 
of kings, and is propitious in the break¬ 
ing and selling of horses; and cat’s-eye, 
—that guardeth the property, reason, 
and health of its possessor; and the pale 
beryllion, blue-green, like sea-water near 
shore,—a good travelling companion for 
pilgrims and a remedy against cataract 
and leprosy; and the vari-coloured 
agate: he that weareth it hath no dread 
of the evil machinations of enemies, and 
avoideth the danger of being crushed in 
an earthquake; and the apple-green, 


98 


SULAMITH 


turbidly-pellucid onychion, — its mas¬ 
ter’s guardian from fire and madness; 
and iaspis, that maketh beasts to trem¬ 
ble; and the black swallow-stone, that 
endoweth with eloquence; and the eagle- 
stone, esteemed of pregnant women,— 
eagles put it in their nests when the 
time comes for their young to break out 
of their shells; and zaberzate out of 
Ophir, shining like little suns; and yel¬ 
low-aureate chrysolite,—the friend of 
merchants and thieves; and sardonyx, 
beloved of kings and queens; and the 
crimson ligurion: it is found, as all 
know, in the stomach of the lynx, whose 
sight is so keen that it can see through 
walls,—and for that reason he that wear- 
eth a ligurion is also noted for keen sight, 
and besides this it stoppeth bleeding of 
the nose, and healeth all wounds, save 
wounds inflicted by stone or iron. 

The king also put upon Sulamith’s 
neck carcanets of great price, of pearls 


SULAMITH 


99 


that had been dived for in the Persian 
Sea by his subjects; and the pearls put 
on a living lustre and a soft colour from 
the warmth of her body. And corals be¬ 
came redder upon her swarthy breast; 
and turquoise came to life upon her fin¬ 
gers ; and those baubles of yellow amber 
which were brought from far northern 
seas, in gift to the king, by the doughty 
ship-masters of Hiram, King of Tyre, 
emitted crackling sparks in her hands. 

With marigolds and lilies did Sula- 
mith deck her couch, preparing it for 
the night; and, reposing upon her breast, 
the king would say in the joyousness of 
his heart: 

“Thou art like to the king’s decked, 
masted boat in the Land of Ophir, O my 
beloved; a light, golden boat that floats, 
swaying, upon the sacred river, among 
white fragrant blossoms.” 


100 


SU LAM IT II 


Thus did his first—and last—love 
come to Solomon, the greatest of kings 
and wisest of sages. 

Many ages have passed since then. 
There have been kingdoms and kings, 
and of them no trace has been left, as of 
a wind that has sped over a desert. 
There have been prolonged, merciless 
wars, after which the names of the com¬ 
manders shone through the ages, like en¬ 
sanguined stars; but time has effaced 
even the very memory of them. 

But the love of the lowly maiden of 
the vineyard and the great king shall 
never pass away nor be forgotten,—for 
love is strong as death; for every woman 
who loves is a queen; for love is beau¬ 
tiful. 


IX. 


Seven days had sped since Solomon,— 
poet, sage, and king,—had brought into 
his palace the lowly maiden he had met 
in the vineyard at dawn. For seven days 
did the king take joyance in her love, 
nor could be sated therewith. And a 
great joy irradiated his countenance, like 
to the golden light of the sun. 

It was the time of light, warm, moon¬ 
lit nights,—sweet nights of love.. . Upon 
a couch of tiger fells lay the naked Sula- 
mith; and the king, sitting upon the floor 
at her feet, filled his emerald goblet 
with the aureate wine of Mauretus, and 
drank to the health of his beloved, re¬ 
joicing with all his heart, and narrated 
to her the sage, strange legends of eld. 


101 


102 


SULAMITH 


And Sulamith’s hand rested upon his 
head, stroking his wavy black hair. 

“Tell me, my king,” Sulamith had 
once asked, “is it not wonderful that I 
fell in love with thee so instantly? I 
now call all things to mind, and meseems 
I began belonging to thee from the very 
first moment, when I had not yet had 
time to behold thee, but had merely 
heard thy voice. My heart began to 
flutter and did open to meet thee, as a 
flower opens to the south wind on a night 
in summer. How hast thou taken me 
so, my beloved?” 

And the king, quietly bending his 
head toward the soft knees of Sulamith, 
smiled tenderly and answered: 

“Thousands of women before thee, O 
my comely one, have put this question 
to their beloveds, and hundreds of ages 
after thee will they be asking their be¬ 
loveds about this. There be three things 
which are too wonderful for me, yea, 


SULAMITH 


103 


four which I know not: the way of an 
eagle in the air; the way of a serpent 
upon a rock; the way of a ship in the 
midst of the sea; and the way of a man 
with a maid. This is not my wisdom, 
Sulamith,—these are the words of Agur, 
son of Jakeh, heard fro mhim by his dis¬ 
ciples. But let us honour the wisdom 
of others also.” 

‘‘Yea,” said Sulamith pensively, “may¬ 
hap it is even true that man shall never 
comprehend this. To-day, during the 
banquet, I wore a sweet-smelling cluster 
of stacte upon my breast. But thou 
didst leave the table, and my flowers 
ceased to give out their smell. Meseems, 
thou must be beloved, O king, of women, 
and men, and beasts, and even of flowers. 
I oft ponder, yet comprehend not: how 
can one love any other save thee?” 

“And any save thee, save thee, Sula¬ 
mith! Every hour do I render thanks 
to God for that He has set thee in my 


104 


SULAMITH 


path.” 

“I remember, I was sitting upon a 
stone of the wall, and thou didst put thy 
hand on mine. Fire ran through my 
veins; my head was dizzied. I said 
within me: Behold, there is my lord, my 
king, my beloved!” 

“I remember, Sulamith, how thou 
didst turn around to my call. Under 
the thin raiment I saw thy body, thy 
beautiful body, that I love as I love God. 
I love it,—covered with its golden down, 
as though the sun had left its kiss upon 
it. Thou art graceful, like to a filly in 
the Pharaoh’s chariot; thou art fair like 
the chariot of Ammi-nadib. Thy eyes 
are as two doves, sitting by the rivers of 
waters.” 

“O, beloved, thy words stir me. Thy 
hand sears me sweetly. O, my king, thy 
legs are as pillars of marble. Thy belly 
is like an heap of wheat, set about with 
lilies.” 


SULAMITH 


105 


Surrounded, irradiated, by the silent 
light of the moon, they forgot time and 
place; and thus hours would pass, and 
they with wonder beheld the rosy dawn 
peeping through the latticed windows 
of the chamber. 

Sulamith also said once: 

“Thou hast known, my beloved, wives 
and virgins without number, and they 
were all the fairest women on earth. I 
become ashamed whenever I consider 
myself,—a simple, unschooled girl,— 
and my poor body, scorched of the sun.” 

But, touching her lips with his, the 
king would say, with infinite love and 
gratefulness: 

“Thou art a queen, Sulamith! Thou 
wast born a true queen. Thou art brave 
and generous in love. Seven hundred 
wives have I, and three hundred concu¬ 
bines, and virgins without number have 
I known; but thou, my timid one, art 
my only one,—thou fairest among wo- 


106 


SULAM1TB 


men. I have found thee like as a diver 
in the Gulf of Persia, that filleth a great 
number of baskets with barren shells and 
pearls of little price, ere he get from 
the bed of the sea a pearl worthy a king’s 
crown. My child, a man may love thou¬ 
sands of times, yet he loveth but once. 
People without number think they love, 
yet only to two of them doth God send 
love. And when thou didst yield thy¬ 
self up to me among the cypresses, un¬ 
der the rafters of cedars, upon the bed of 
green, I did with all my soul render 
thanks to God, so gracious to me.” 

Sulamith also asked once: 

“I know that they all loved thee, for 
not to love thee is impossible. The 
Queen of Sheba did come to thee from 
her domain. They say, that she was the 
wisest and fairest of all women that had 
ever been on earth. As in a dream, I re¬ 
call her caravans. I know not why, but 
since my earliest childhood I have been 


SULAM1TH 


107 


drawn to the chariots of the great. I 
was then perhaps seven, perhaps eight. 
I remember the camels in golden har¬ 
ness, covered with caparisons of purple, 
laden with heavy burthens; I remember 
the mules with little bells of gold be¬ 
tween their ears; I remember the droll 
monkeys in silvern cages; and the won¬ 
drous peacocks. There was a multitude 
of servants in garments of white and 
blue, marching; they led tame tigers and 
panthers upon ribbands of red. I was 
but eight then.” 

‘‘O child, thou wert but eight then,” 
said Solomon with sadness. 

“Didst thou love her more than me, 
Solomon? Wilt tell me something of 
her?” 

And the king told her all pertaining 
to this amazing woman. Having heard 
much of the wisdom and beauty of the 
King of Israel, she had come to him 
from her domain with rich gifts, desir* 


108 


SULAMITH 


ing to prove his wisdom and subdue his 
heart. This was a magnificent woman 
of forty, who was already beginning to 
fade. But through secret, magic means 
she contrived to make her body, that was 
growing flabby, seem graceful and sup¬ 
ple, like a girl’s, while her face bore an 
impress of an awesome, inhuman beauty. 
But her wisdom was ordinary wisdom, 
and the petty wisdom of a woman to 
boot. 

Desiring to test the king with riddles, 
she at first sent to him fifty youths of 
tenderest age, and fifty maidens. They 
were all so cunningly dressed that the 
keenest eye could not have discerned 
their sex. “I shall call thee wise, O 
King,” said Balkis, “if thou shalt tell me 
which of them is woman, and which 
man.” 

But the king burst out laughing, and 
ordered that every he and she sent him 
be brought a separate bason of silver, 


SULAMITH 


109 


and a separate ewer of silver, for laving. 
And whereas the boys bravely splashed 
in the water and cast it in handfuls at 
their faces, drying their skin vigorously, 
the girls acted as women always do at 
their ablutions. They lathered each 
hand gently and solicitously, bringing 
it closely to their eyes. 

In so easy a manner did the king solve 
the first riddle of Balkis-Makkedah. 

Next she sent Solomon a large dia¬ 
mond, the size of a hazel nut. This stone 
had a thin, exceedingly tortuous flaw, 
that perforated its entire body with a 
narrow, intricate path. The task was to 
put a silken thread through the jewel. 
And the wise king let into the opening 
a silk worm, which, having passed 
through, left the finest of silken webs in 
its wake. 

Also, the beauteous Balkis sent King 
Solomon a precious goblet of carved 
sardonyx, of magnificent workmanship. 


110 


SULAMITH 


“This goblet shall be thine,” she had 
commanded that the king be told, “if 
thou fillest it with moisture taken neither 
from earth nor heaven.” And Solomon, 
having filled the goblet with froth fall¬ 
ing from the body of a fatigued steed, 
ordered it to be carried to the queen. 

Many such hard questions did the 
queen put to Solomon, but could not 
belittle his wisdom; nor with all her 
secret charms of love’s passion in the 
night might she contrive to retain his 
love. And when she had finally palled 
upon the king, he had cruelly, hurtfully 
made mock of her. 

Everybody knew that the Savvian 
queen never showed her lower extremi¬ 
ties to anyone, and for that reason wore 
a garment reaching to the ground. Even 
in the hours of love caresses did she 
keep her legs closely covered with rai¬ 
ment. Many strange and droll legends 
had sprung up on this account. 


SULAMITH 


111 


Some averred, that the queen had legs 
like a goat, grown over with wool; others 
swore, that instead of human feet she 
had webbed feet, like a goose. And they 
even related how the mother of Bal- 
kis had once, after bathing, sat down 
upon sand where just before a certain 
god, temporarily metamorphosed into a 
gander, had left his seed, and that through 
this she had borne the beauteous Queen 
of Sheba. 

And so Solomon one day commanded 
to be built, in one of his chambers, a 
transparent floor of crystal, with an 
empty space beneath it, which was 
filled with water and stocked with live 
fish. All this was done with such extra¬ 
ordinary art that one not forewarned 
could never possibly notice the glass, and 
would take an oath that a pool of clear, 
fresh water lay before him. 

And when all was in readiness, Solo¬ 
mon invited his regal guest to an inter- 


112 


SULAMITH 


view. Surrounded by all the pomp of 
her retinue, she paced through the 
chambers of the House at Lebanon, and 
came up to the treacherous pool. At the 
other end of it sat the king, resplendent 
with gold and precious stones, and with 
a welcoming look in his dark eyes. The 
door opened before the queen, and she 
took a step forward,—but cried out 
and . . . 

Sulamith claps her palms and laughs, 
and her laughter is joyous and child-like. 

“She stoops and lifts up her raiment?” 
asks Sulamith. 

“Yea, my beloved, she acted as any 
among women would have acted. She 
raised up the hem of her garment, and 
although this lasted for but a moment, 
not only I but all my court saw that the 
beauteous Savvian Queen, Balkis-Mak- 
kedah, had ordinary human legs, but 
crooked and grown over with coarse 
hair. On the very next day she set off, 


SULAMITH 


113 


without bidding me farewell, and de¬ 
parted with her magnificent caravan. 
I had not meant to offend her. I sent 
after her a trustworthy runner, whom I 
ordered to give to the queen a bundle of 
a rare mountain herb,—the best means 
for the extirpation of hair upon the body. 
But she returned to me the head of my 
emissary in a bag of costly purple.” 

Solomon also told his beloved many 
things out of his life, which none other 
among men and women knew, and which 
Sulamith carried with her into the 
grave. He told her of the long and 
weary years of his wanderings, when, 
fleeing from the wrath of his brethren, 
he was forced to hide under an assumed 
name in foreign lands, enduring fearful 
poverty and privations. He told her 
how, in a far-off, unknown country, 
while he was standing in the market 
place, in expectation of being hired to 
work somewhere, the king’s cook had 


114 


SULAMITH 


approached him and said: 

‘‘Stranger, help me carry this hamper 
of fish into the palace.” 

Through his wit, adroitness, and 
skilled demeanor, Solomon so pleased 
the officers of the court, that in a short 
while he had made himself at home in 
the palace, and when the head cook died 
he had taken his place. Further, Solo¬ 
mon told of how the king’s only daugh¬ 
ter,—a beautiful, ardent maiden,—had 
fallen in love with the new cook and had 
confessed her love to him; how they fled 
from the palace one night, and had been 
re-taken and brought back; how Solo¬ 
mon had been condemned to die; and 
how, by a miracle, he succeeded in es¬ 
caping from the dungeon. 

Avidly did Sulamith listen to him, 
and, when he grew silent, amidst the 
stillness of the night their lips joined, 
their arms entwined each other, and 
breast touched breast. And when morn- 


SULAMITH 


115 


ing drew near, and Sulamith’s body 
seemed a foamy pink, and the fatigue of 
love encircled her splendid eyes with 
blue shadows, she would say with a ten¬ 
der smile: 

“Stay me with flagons, comfort me 
with apples: for I am sick of love.” 


X. 


In the temple of Isis, upon Mount 
Beth-El-Khav, the first part of the great 
mystery, to which the faithful of the 
lesser initiation were admitted, was just 
over. The priest on duty,—an ancient 
elder in white vestment, with shaven 
head, and neither moustache nor beard, 
—had turned from the elevation of the 
altar toward the people, and pronounced 
in a quiet, tired voice: 

“Dwell in peace, my sons and daugh¬ 
ters. Wax perfect through deeds. Ex¬ 
toll the name of the goddess. And may 
her blessings be over ye for ever and 
aye.” 

He raised his hands on high over the 
people, in benediction. And immedi- 


116 


8ULAMITH 


117 


ately all the initiates into the lesser rank 
of the mysteries prostrated themselves 
on the floor, and then, arising, softly and 
in silence made their way to the exit. 

To-day was the seventh day of the 
month Phamenoth, sacred to the myster¬ 
ies of Osiris and Isis. Since evening the 
solemn procession had thrice made the 
circuit of the temple with lamps, palm- 
leaves, and amphorae; with the occult 
symbols of the gods and the sacred im¬ 
ages of the Phallus. In the midst of the 
procession, upon the shoulders of the 
priests and the minor prophets, was 
reared the closed naos of costly wood, 
ornamented with pearl, ivory, and gold. 
Therein dwelt the goddess herself,—She, 
The Invisible, The Bestower of Fecun¬ 
dity, The Mysterious; Mother, Sister, 
and Wife of gods. 

The evil Seth had enticed his brother, 
the divine Osiris, to a feast; through 
craftiness he made him to lie down in a 


118 


SU LAM IT II 


magnificent sarcophagus, and, having 
clapped down the lid over him, cast the 
sarcophagus with the body of the great 
god into the Nile. Isis, who had just 
given birth to Horus, with yearning and 
tears searches all the world over for the 
body of her spouse, and for long can not 
find it. Finally, slaves inform her that 
the body had been borne out to sea by the 
waves, and that it had been cast up at 
Byblos, where an enormous tree had 
sprung up about it, enclosing within its 
trunk the body of the god and his float¬ 
ing dwelling. The king of that domain 
had commanded a mighty column to be 
made out of the enormous tree, not know¬ 
ing that within it reposed the god Osiris 
himself, the great bestower of life. Isis 
goes to Byblos; she arrives there fa¬ 
tigued with sultriness, thirst, and the 
toilsome, stony road. She liberates the 
sarcophagus out of the midst of the tree, 
carries it with her, and buries it in the 


SULAMITH 


119 


earth near the city wall. But Seth again 
secretly steals away the body of Osiris, 
cuts it up into fourteen parts, and strews 
them over all the towns and settlements 
of Upper and Lower iEgypt. 

And again with great grief and lam¬ 
entations Isis set out in search of the 
sacred members of her spouse and broth¬ 
er. Her sister, the goddess Nephthys, 
and the mighty Thoth, and the son of the 
goddess, the radiant Horus,—Horus of 
the Horizon,—all join their plaints to 
her weeping. 

Such was the hidden meaning of the 
present procession in the first half of the 
sacred service. Now, upon the depar¬ 
ture of the common believers, and after 
a short rest, the second part of the great 
mystery was about to be consummated. 
In the temple were left only those initi¬ 
ated into the higher degrees,—mysta- 
gogues, epopts, prophets and sacrifi- 
cators. 


120 


SULAMITH 


Boys in white vestments bore about, 
upon salvers of silver, flesh, bread, dried 
fruits, and sweet wine of Pelusium. 
Others poured hippocras out of narrow¬ 
necked Tyrian vessels,—a drink given in 
those days to condemned criminals be¬ 
fore execution, to arouse their manhood, 
but which also possessed the great vir¬ 
tue of generating and sustaining in men 
the fire of a sacred madness. 

At a sign from the priest on duty the 
boys withdrew. A priest who was also 
the keeper of the gates locked all doors. 
Then he attentively made the rounds of 
all those who remained, scrutinizing 
their faces and testing them with secret 
words that constituted the pass-orders 
for this night. Two other priests drew 
a silvern thurible upon wheels down the 
length of the temple and around each of 
its columns. The temple filled with the 
blue, thick, heady, aromatic fumes of 
incense, and through the layers of smoke 


SULAMITH 


121 


grew barely visible the vari-coloured 
flames of the lamp,—lamps made of 
translucent stones, lamps set in carved 
gold and suspended from the ceiling up¬ 
on long chains of silver. In the times 
of eld this temple of Osiris and Isis was 
known for its small extent and its pover¬ 
ty, and was hollowed out like a cavern 
in the heart of the mountain. A narrow 
subterranean corridor led to it from 
without. But in the days of the reign of 
Solomon, who had taken under his pro¬ 
tection all religions save those which 
permitted the offering of children in 
sacrifice, and thanks to the zeal of Queen 
Astis, an A^gytian born, the temple had 
expanded in depth and height, and had 
become adorned with rich offerings. 

The former altar still remained in¬ 
violate in its primordial, austere simplic¬ 
ity, together with a great number of 
small chambers surrounding it and serv¬ 
ing for the keeping of treasures, sacri- 


122 


SULAMITH 


ficial objects, and priestly appurtenances, 
as well as for special secret purposes 
during the most occult mystic orgies. 

But then, the outer court was truly 
magnificent, with its pylons in honour 
of the goddess Hathor, and with a four¬ 
sided collonade of four and twenty 
columns. The inner, subterranean, hy- 
postylic hall for worshippers was built 
still more magnificently. Its mosaic 
floor was all adorned with cunningly 
wrought images of fishes, beasts, amphi¬ 
bians and reptiles; while the ceiling was 
overlaid with blue lazure, and upon it 
shone a sun of gold, glowed a moon of 
silver, innumerable stars twinkled, and 
birds soared upon outspread wings. The 
floor was the earth, the ceiling the sky, 
and they were joined by round and many- 
sided columns, like mighty tree trunks; 
and since all the columns were sur¬ 
mounted by capitals in the form of the 
tender flowers of lotus or the slender 


SULAMITH 


123 


cylinders of the papyrus, the ceiling 
they supported did in reality seem as 
light and aetherial as the sky. 

The walls to the height of a man were 
faced with plates of red granite, brought 
at the desire of Queen Astis out of 
Thebes, where the local master workers 
could impart to the granite a smooth¬ 
ness like that of a mirror, together with 
an amazing polish. Higher, to the very 
ceiling, the walls, as well as the columns, 
were gay with graven and limned images 
with the symbols of the gods of both 
iFgypts. Here was Sebekh, honoured 
in Fayum in the form of a crocodile; 
and Thoth, the god of the moon, depicted 
as an ibis in the city of Khmunu; and the 
sun-god Horus, to whom a small idol- 
temple was consecrated in Edfu; and 
Bast of Bubastis, in the form of a cat; 
Shu, the god of the air, as a lion; Ptah,— 
an Apis; Hathor, the goddess of mirth,— 
a heifer; Anubis, the god of embalming, 


124 


SULAMITH 


with the head of a jackal; and Menthu 
out of Hermon; and the Coptic Minu; 
and Neith of Sais, the goddess of the 
sky; and, finally, in the form of a ram,— 
the dread god whose name was never 
uttered, and who was called Khenti- 
Amentiu, which signifieth: The Dweller 
in the West. 

The half-dark altar reared above the 
entire temple, and the gold upon the 
walls of the sanctuary that hid the images 
of Isis gleamed within its depths. Three 
gates,—a large one in the middle, and 
two small ones flanking it,—opened into 
the sanctuary. Before the middle one 
stood a small sacrificial altar with a sa¬ 
cred stone knife of ^Ethiopian obsidian. 
Steps led up to the altar, and upon 
them were disposed young priests and 
priestesses with tympani and 1 sistrums, 
with flutes and tabours. 

Queen Astis was reclining within a 
little, secret chamber. A small quad- 


SULAMITH 


125 


rangular opening, artfully concealed by 
a large curtain, led directly to the altar, 
and permitted one to follow all the de¬ 
tails of the sacred service without be¬ 
traying one’s presence. A light, closely- 
fitting dress of linen gauze, interwoven 
with silver, tightly enveloped the body 
of the queen, leaving the arms bare up 
to the shoulders, and the legs half-way 
to the calf. Her skin gleamed pinkly 
through the diaphanous material, and 
one could see the pure lines and ele¬ 
vations of her graceful body, which, de¬ 
spite the queen’s age of thirty, still had 
lost none of its litheness, beauty and 
freshness. Her hair, stained a blue 
colour, was spread loosely over her 
shoulders and back, and 'was adorned 
with innumerable little aromatic poman¬ 
ders. Her face was much rouged and 
whitened; while her eyes, finely outlined 
by kohl, seemed enormous and glowed 
in the darkness, like those of some power- 


126 


SULAMITH 


ful beast of the feline species. A sacred 
uraeus of gold hung down from her neck, 
separating the half-bared breasts. 

Ever since Solomon had cooled toward 
Queen Astis, tired of her unbridled sens¬ 
uality, she, with all the ardour of 
southern love-passion, and with all the 
jealousy of a woman scorned, had given 
herself up to those secret orgies of per¬ 
verted lust that constituted the highest 
cult of the castrates’ service of Isis. She 
always showed herself surrounded by 
priests-castrates, and, even now, as one 
of them fanned her head with measured 
strokes of a fan made of peacock feathers, 
others were seated upon the floor drink¬ 
ing in the beauty of the queen with eyes 
of insane bliss. Their nostrils were 
dilating and quivering from the scent 
of her body wafted to them, and they 
sought with trembling fingers to touch 
unperceived the hem of her light rai¬ 
ment, barely stirring in the breeze. Their 


SULAMITH 


127 


excessive, never satiated sensuousness 
spurred on their imagination to its ut¬ 
most limits. Their inventiveness in the 
pleasures of Kybele and Ashera surpassed 
all human possibilities. And being 
jealous of the queen toward one another, 
toward all men, women, and children,— 
being jealous of her own self—they 
adored her even more than Isis, and, 
loving her, hated her as an inexhaustible, 
fiery fountain-head of delectable and 
cruel sufferings. 

Dark, evil, fearful, and fascinating 
rumours were current about Queen Astis 
in Jerusalem. The parents of beautiful 
boys and girls hid their children from 
her gaze; men dreaded to utter her name 
upon the conjugal couch, as an omen of 
defilement and disaster. But agitating, 
irresistible curiosity drew all souls to 
her, and gave all bodies up into her 
power. They who had but once ex¬ 
perienced her ferocious, sanguinary 



128 


SU LAM IT FI 


caresses could nevermore forget her, and 
became her lifelong, pitiful, spurned 
slaves. Ready, for a renewed possession 
of her, to commit every sin, to endure 
every degradation and crime, they came 
to resemble those unfortunates who, 
having once tasted of the bitter drink of 
the poppy from the Land of Ophir,— 
the drink that bestoweth sweet dreams,— 
will nevermore draw away from it, bow¬ 
ing down before it only and honouring 
it alone, until exhaustion and madness 
cut short their life. 

The fan swayed slowly in the sultry 
air. In silent rapture the priests con¬ 
templated their dread sovereign. But 
she seemed to have forgotten their 
presence. Having moved the curtain 
slightly aside, she was ceaselessly gaz¬ 
ing across toward that part of the altar 
where at one time, out of the dark fis¬ 
sures of the ancient curtains of beaten 
gold, was to be seen the beautiful, radi- 



SULAMITH 


129 


ant countenance of the king of Israel. 
Him alone did the spurned queen, the 
cruel and lecherous Astis, love with all 
her flaming and depraved heart. His 
glance of a fleeting moment, a kind word 
of his, the touch of his hand, did she seek 
everywhere, and found not. Upon tri¬ 
umphal levees, court banquets, and upon 
the days of judgment, did Solomon pay 
his respects, due a queen and the daugh¬ 
ter of a king; but his soul was not quick 
unto her. And the proud queen would 
often command herself to be borne at 
set hours past the House at Lebanon, to 
glimpse, even though afar and un¬ 
noticed, through the heavy stuffs of her 
litter, the proud, unforgetably splendid 
visage of Solomon, in the midst of the 
throng of courtiers. And long since her 
flaming love had grown so closely joined 
to searing hatred that Astis herself was 
unable to tell them apart. 

In former days Solomon also had vis- 


130 


8ULAMITH 


ited the temple of Isis on great festal 
days, had brought the goddess offerings, 
and had even accepted the title of her 
hierophant,—second after that of the 
Pharaoh of iEgypt. But the horrible 
mysteries of “The Sanguine Sacrifice of 
Fecundation” had turned his mind and 
heart from the service of the Mother 
of Gods. 

“He that is castrated through ignor¬ 
ance or by force, or through accident 
or disease, is not abased before God,” 
the king had said. “But woe be unto 
him that doth maim himself with his 
own hand.” 

And now for a whole year his couch 
in the temple had remained vacant. 
And in vain did the flaming eyes of the 
queen now gaze avidly at the unstirred 
hangings. 

In the meanwhile the wine, hippo- 
eras, and the stupefying burnt perfumes 
were already having a perceptible effect 


SULAMITH 


131 


upon those gathered within the temple. 
Cries, and laughter, and the ring of sil¬ 
ver vessels falling upon the stone floor 
came with greater frequency. The 
grand, mysterious moment of the san¬ 
guinary sacrifice was approaching. Ec¬ 
stasy was overcoming the faithful. 

With an abstracted gaze the queen 
surveyed the temple and the believers. 
Many honoured and illustrious men of 
Solomon’s retinue and many of his gen¬ 
erals were here: Ben Geber, ruler over 
the region of Argob; and Ahimaaz, who 
had Basmath, the daughter of the king, 
to wife; and the witty Ben-Dekar; and 
Zabud, who bore, in accordance with 
eastern customs, the high title of the 
King’s Friend; and the brother of Solo¬ 
mon by the first marriage of David,— 
Dalaiah, a debilitated, half-dead man, 
who had prematurely fallen into idiocy 
through exdesses and drinking. They 
were all—some through faith, some 


132 


SULAMITH 


through ulterior designs, others out of 
adulation, and still others for lecherous 
purposes,—the adorants of Isis. 

And now the eyes of the queen rested, 
long and attentively, intent in thought, 
on the comely, youthful face of Eliab, 
one of the officers of the king’s body¬ 
guards. 

The queen knew why his swarthy face 
was aflame with such a vivid colour, why 
his eyes were directed with such pas¬ 
sionate yearning hitherward, upon the 
curtains, scarce stirring from the touch 
of the queen’s beautiful hands. Once, al¬ 
most in jest, submitting to a momentary 
caprice, she had made Eliab to pass 
a whole night of felicity with her. In 
the morning she had let him depart, but 
ever since, for many days running, she 
had beheld everywhere,—in the palace, 
in the temple, in the streets,—two en¬ 
amoured, submissive, yearning eyes, that 
followed her entranced. 


SUL AM IT II 


1 OO 

loo 

The dark eye-brows of the queen 
contracted, and her green, elongated 
eyes suddenly darkened from a fearful 
thought. With a barely perceptible 
motion of her hand she ordered the cas¬ 
trate to lower the fan and said quietly: 

“Get hence, all of you. Hushai, thou 
shalt go and summon to me Eliab, the 
officer of the king’s guard. Let him 
come alone.” 


XI. 


Ten priests, in white vestments, ma- k 
culated with red, stepped out to the cen-\ 
tre of the altar. Following them came 
two other priests, clad in feminine gar¬ 
ments. It was their duty to-day to rep¬ 
resent Nephthys and Isis, bewailing 
Osiris. Then out of the depths of the 
altar came one in a white chiton, without 
a single ornament, and the eyes of all 
the men and women were avidly drawn 
to him. This was the very same desert 
anchorite who had undergone a heavy 
trial of ten years’ wrestling with the 
flesh upon the mountains of Lebanon, 
and was now to bring a great, voluntary 
bloody sacrifice to Isis. His face, 
emaciated by hunger, wind-beaten and 


134 


SULAMITH 


135 


scorched, was stern and pallid, the eyes 
austerely cast down; and a supernatural 
horror was wafted from him upon the 
throng. 

Finally, the chief priest of the temple 
also made his appearance,—a centen¬ 
arian ancient, with a tiara upon his head, 
with a tiger skin upon his shoulders, in 
an apron of brocaded samite adorned 
with the tails of jackals. 

Turning to the worshippers, he uttered 
in a senile voice, meek and tremulous: 

“Suton-di-hotpu.” (“The king bring- 
eth the sacrifice.”) 

And then, turning around to the sac¬ 
rificial altar, he took from the hands of 
an acolyte a white dove with little red 
feet, cut off the bird’s head, took the 
heart out of her breast, and sprinkled 
the sacrificial altar and the consecrated 
knife with her blood. 

After a brief silence he proclaimed: 

“Let us weep for Osiris, the god of 


136 


SULAMITE 


Atum, the Great On-Nefer-Hophra, the 
god Ona!” 

Two castrates in female garments,— 
Isis and Nephthys,—at once commenced 
the lamentation, in harmonious, high- 
pitched voices: 

“Return to thy dwelling, O beauteous 
youth! To behold thee is bliss. 

“Isis charges thee,—Isis, that was 
conceived in the one womb with thee,— 
Isis, thy spouse and thy sister. 

“Show us thy countenance anew, radi¬ 
ant god. Here is Nephthys, thy sister. 
She is deluged in her tears and plucks 
out her hair in her grief. 

“In a yearning like unto death do we 
seek after thy beauteous body. Return 
to thy dwelling, Osiris!” 

Two other priests joined their voices 
to those of the first two. These were 
Horus and Anubis lamenting for Osiris, 
and each time they concluded a stanza, 
the chorus, disposed upon the steps of 


SULAMITH 


137 


the staircase, repeated it to a solemn and 
sad motive. 

Then with the same chant the elder 
priests brought out of the sanctuary the 
statue of the goddess, no longer covered 
with the naos. A black mantle, strewn 
over with golden stars, now enveloped 
the goddess from head to foot, leaving 
visible only her silvern feet, entwined 
by a serpent, as well as, over her head, 
a silvern disc, confined within the horns 
of a cow. And slowly, to the tinkling 
of the censers and sistra, with mourn¬ 
ful weeping, the procession of the god¬ 
dess Isis set out from the steps of the 
altar, down into the temple, along its 
walls, and in and out between the 
columns. 

Thus did the goddess gather up the 
scattered members of her spouse, that 
she might resuscitate him with the aid 
of Thoth and Anubis. 

“Glory to the city of Abydos, that pre- 


138 


8ULAMITH 


served thy fair head, Osiris. 

‘‘Glory to thee, city of Memphis, 
where we did find the right hand of the 
great god,—the hand of war and pro¬ 
tection. 

“And to thee also, O city of Sais, that 
didst harbour the left hand of the radiant 
god,—the hand of justice. 

“And be thou blessed, city of Thebes, 
where the heart of On-Nefer-Hophra 
did repose.” 

Thus did the goddess make the round 
of the entire temple, coming back to the 
altar, and more and more passionate and 
loud did the singing of the chorus be¬ 
come. A sacred exaltation was taking 
possession of the priests and those pray¬ 
ing. All the parts of the body of 
Osiris had Isis found, save one, — the 
sacred Phallus, impregnating the mater¬ 
nal womb, creating new life eternal. 
Now was approaching the grandest act 
in the mystery of Osiris and Isis. . . 


SULAMITH 


139 


“Is it thou, Eliab?” the queen asked 
the youth, who had quietly entered the 
door. 

In the darkness near the couch he 
noiselessly sank at her feet and pressed 
to his lips the hem of her raiment. And 
the queen felt him weeping with rap¬ 
ture, shame, and desire. Lowering her 
hand upon his curly, tousled head, the 
queen uttered: 

“Tell me, Eliab, all that thou know- 
est of the king and this girl of the vine¬ 
yard.’’ 

“How thou dost love him, O queen!” 
said Eliab with a bitter moan. 

“Speak! . . ” commanded Astis. 

“What can I tell thee, queen? My 
heart is rent by jealousy.” 

“Speak!” 

“Never yet has the king loved any as 
he loveth her. He doth not part from 
her for an instant. His eyes shine with 
happiness. He lavishes favours and 


140 


SULAMITH 


gifts all about him. He, the Abime- 
lechi 5 ! and sage,—he, like a slave, lieth 
at her feet and, like a dog, taketh not 
his eyes off her.” 

“Speak!” 

“O, how thou dost torture me, queen! 
And she . . . she is all love, all tender¬ 
ness and caresses! She is meek and 
abashed, she sees and knows naught save 
her love. She arouses wrath, envy, or 
jealousy in none. . . ” 

“Speak!” furiously moaned out the 
queen, and, clutching with her pliant 
fingers the black curls of Eliab, she 
pressed his head against her body, 
scratching his face with the silver em¬ 
broidery of her diaphonous chiton. 

And in the meanwhile, at the altar, 
around the image of the goddess cov¬ 
ered with its black pall, the priests and 
priestesses were careering in a holy 
frenzy, with shouts resembling barking, 
to the clashing of tympani and the jar- 


SULAMITH 


141 


ring strum of sistrums. 

Certain ones among them were flay¬ 
ing themselves with many-tailed whip¬ 
lashes of rhinoceros hide; others were 
inflicting long, slashing wounds upon 
their own breasts and shoulders with 
short knives; others still were tearing 
their mouths with their fingers, tearing 
at their ears, and excoriating their faces 
with their nails. In the midst of this 
mad round-dance, at the very feet of the 
goddess, with inconceivable rapidity the 
anchorite from the mountains of Leb¬ 
anon was whirling on one spot, in snowy- 
white, waving raiment. The head priest 
alone remained motionless. In his hand 
he was holding the sacred sacrificial 
knife of ^Ethiopian obsidian, ready to 
pass it over at the ultimate, frightful 
moment. 

“The Phallus! The Phallus! The 
Phallus!” the maddened priests were 
crying in an ecstasy. “Where is thy 


142 


SULAAIITH 


Phallus, O radiant god? Come, fecun¬ 
date the goddess! Her bosom languishes 
with desire! Her womb is like a desert 
in the sultry months of summer!” 

And now a fearful, insane, piercing 
scream for an instant drowned all sound 
of the chorus. The priests quickly 
parted, and all those in the temple be¬ 
held the anchorite of Lebanon, utterly 
nude, horrible with his tall, gaunt, yel¬ 
low body. The high priest held out the 
knife to him. The temple grew unbear¬ 
ably still. And he, quickly stooping, 
made some motion, straightened up, and 
with a wail of pain and rapture sud¬ 
denly cast at the feet of the goddess a 
formless, bloody piece of flesh. 

He was tottering. The high priest 
carefully supported him, putting his 
arm around his back; led him up to the 
image of Isis, painstakingly covered 
him with the black pall, and left him 
thus for a few moments, in order that in 


8ULAMITH 


143 


secret, unseen of the others, he might 
imprint his kiss upon the lips of the im¬ 
pregnated goddess. 

Immediately thereafter he was laid 
upon a stretcher and borne from the al¬ 
tar. The priest who kept the gates went 
outside the temple. He struck an enor¬ 
mous copper disc with a wooden mallet, 
proclaiming to all the universe that the 
great mystery of the fecundation of the 
goddess had been consummated. And 
the high, singing sound of the copper 
floated away over Jerusalem. 

Queen Astis, her body still quivering 
without cease, threw back Eliab’s head. 
Her eyes were aflame with an intense, 
red fire. And she spake slowly, word by 
word: 

“Eliab, wouldst have me make thee 
king over Judaea and Israel? Wouldst 
thou be sovereign over all Syria and 
Mesopotamia, over Phoenicia and Ba¬ 
bylon?” 


144 


SULAMITH 


“Nay, queen, I desire thee alone. . . ” 

“Yea, thou shalt be my lord. All my 
nights shall belong to thee. My every 
word, my every glance, my every breath 
shall be thine. Thou knowest the shib¬ 
boleth. Thou shalt go this day into the 
palace and slay them. Thou shalt slay 
them both! Thou shalt slay them both!” 

Eliab was fain to speak. But the 
queen drew him to her, and her burning 
lips and tongue clung to his mouth. This 
lasted excruciatingly long. Then, sud¬ 
denly tearing the youth away from her, 
she said curtly and imperiously: 

“Go!” 

“I go,” answered Eliab, submissively. 


XII. 


And it was the seventh night of Solo¬ 
mon’s great love. 

Strangely quiet and deeply tender 
were the caresses of the king and Sula- 
mith on this night. Some pensive me¬ 
lancholy, some cautious timidity, some 
distant premonition, seemed to have cast 
a slight shadow over their words, their 
kisses and embraces. 

Gazing through the window at the 
sky, where night was already vanquish¬ 
ing the sinking flame of the evening, 
Sulamith let her eyes rest upon a bright, 
blueish star that trembled meekly and 
tenderly. 

“What is that star called, my be¬ 
loved?” she asked. 


145 


146 


SULAMITH 


‘‘That is the star Sopdit,” answered the 
king. “It is a sacred star. Assyrian 
magi tell us that the souls of all men 
dwell upon it after the death of the 
body.” 

“Dost thou believe it, my king?” 

Solomon made no reply. His right 
hand was under Sulamith’s head, and his 
left did embrace her; and she felt his 
aromatic breath upon her,—upon her 
hair, upon her temple. 

“Mayhap we shall see each other 
there, my king, after we have died?” 
asked Sulamith uneasily. 

The king again kept silence. 

“Give me some answer, beloved,” 
timidly implored Sulamith. 

Whereupon the king said: 

“Brief is the life of man, but time is 
without end, and matter hath no death. 
Man dieth and maketh the earth fertile 
with the corruption of his body; the 
earth nourisheth the blade; the blade 


SULAMITH 


147 


bringeth forth grain; man consumeth 
bread, and feedeth his body therewith. 
Multitudes, and multitudes upon multi¬ 
tudes, of ages shall pass; all things in 
the universe repeat themselves,—men, 
beasts, stones, plants,—all repeat them¬ 
selves. In the multiform vortex of time 
and matter we, too, are repeated, my be¬ 
loved. It is just as true as that, if thou 
and I were to fill a large bag up to the 
top wih sea gravel, and were to cast 
therein but one precious sapphire,— 
though we were to take pebbles out of 
the bag many, many times, we still 
would, sooner or later, draw out the 
precious stone as well. Thou and I will 
meet, Sulamith, nor shall we know each 
other; but our hearts, with rapture and 
yearning, will strive to meet, for thou 
and I have already met,—my meek, my 
fair Sulamith,—though we remember it 
not.” 

“Nay, my king, nay! I remember. 


148 


SULAMITH 


When thou didst stand beneath the win¬ 
dow and didst call to me: ‘My fair, 
come out, for my locks are filled with 
the drops of the night!’ I knew thee, I 
remembered thee; and fear and joy pos¬ 
sessed my heart. Tell me, my king,— 
tell me, Solomon: if I were, say, to die 
on the morrow, wouldst thou recall thy 
swarthy maiden of the vineyard, thy 
Sulamith?” 

And the king, pressing her to his 
breast, whispered in emotion: 

“Never speak thus. . . Speak not thus, 
O Sulamith! Thou art chosen of God, 
thou art the veritable one, thou art the 
queen of my soul. . . Death shall not 
touch thee. . . ” 

The strident sound of brass suddenly 
soared over Jerusalem. For long it 
trembled mournfully and wavered in 
the air, and when it had grown silent 
its quavering echoes still floated on for a 
long while. 


SULAMITH 


149 


‘‘This marks the ending of the mys¬ 
tery in the temple of Isis,” said the king. 

“I am afraid, my comely one,” whis¬ 
pered Sulamith. “A dark terror has 
penetrated into my soul... I do not want 
to die... I have not yet had time to enjoy 
my fill of thy embraces. . . Embrace me. 
•. . Press me closer to thee. . . Set me as 
a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy 
arm!.. ” 

“Fear not death, Sulamith! For love 
is strong as death. . . Drive sad thoughts 
from thee. . . Wouldst have me tell thee 
of the wars of David, of the feasts and 
hunts of the Pharaoh Shishak? Wouldst 
hear one of those fairy tales that come 
from the land of Ophir? . . . Wouldst 
have me tell thee of the wonders of 
Bakramaditiah ?” 

“Yea, my king. Thou dost know thy¬ 
self that when I hearken to thee, my 
heart doth expand from happiness! But 
I would ask a boon of thee. . . .” 


150 


8ULAMITH 


“O Sulamith, all that thou dost de¬ 
sire! Ask my life of me,—I shall render 
it up to thee with delight. I shall only 
regret having paid too small a price for 
thy love.” 

Then Sulamith smiled in the darkness 
for happiness, and, entwining the king 
with her arms, whispered in his ear: 

‘‘I beseech thee, when the morning 
cometh let us go together there. . . to 
the vineyard. . . There, where it is green, 
and the cypresses are, and the cedars; 
where, nigh the stone wall, thou didst 
take my soul with thy hands. .. I beseech 
thee to do this, my beloved.. . There will 
I give thee my loves anew. . . ” 

In a transport of delight the king 
kissed the lips of his love. 

But Sulamith suddenly raised herself 
up on the couch and hearkened. 

“What is it, my child? . . . What hath 
frightened thee?” asked Solomon. 

‘‘Stay, my beloved. .. Some one is com- 


^ULAMITE 


151 


ing hither. . . Yea. . . I hear steps.” 

She became silent. And the stillness 
was such that they marked the beating 
of their hearts. 

A slight rustling was heard beyond the 
door, and it was suddenly thrown ajar, 
quickly and without a sound. 

“Who is there?” cried out Solomon. 

But Sulamith had already sprung 
up from the bed, and with one move 
dashed toward the dark figure of a man 
with a gleaming sword in his hand. 
And immediately, stricken through by a 
short, quick stroke, she fell down to the 
floor with a faint cry, as though of 
wonder. 

Solomon shattered with his hand the 
screen of carnelian that shaded the light 
of the night-lamp. He beheld Eliab, 
who was standing near the door, stoop¬ 
ing a little over the body of the girl, 
swaying like one in wine. The young 
warrior raised his head under Solomon’s 


152 


SULAMITH 


gaze, and, when his eyes met the wrath¬ 
ful, awesome eyes of the king, he 
blanched and groaned. An expression 
of despair and terror distorted his fea¬ 
tures. And suddenly, stooping, hiding 
his face in his mantle, he began timidly, 
like a frightened jackal, to slink out of 
the room. But the king stayed him, say¬ 
ing but three words: 

“Who compelled thee?” 

All a-tremble and with teeth chatter¬ 
ing, with eyes grown white from fear, 
the young warrior let drop dully: 

“Queen Astis. . . ” 

“Get thee hence,” commanded Solo¬ 
mon. “Tell the guard on duty to watch 
thee.” 

Soon people with lights commenced 
running through the innumerable rooms 
of the palace. All the chambers were 
illuminated. The leeches came; the 
friends and the military officers of the 
king gathered. 


SULAMITH 


153 


The chief leech said: 

“King, neither science nor God will 
now avail. She will die the instant we 
draw out the sword left in her breast.” 

But at this moment Sulamith came to 
and said with a calm smile: 

“I would drink.” 

And when she had drunk, her eyes 
rested with a tender, beautiful smile 
upon the king, nor did she again take 
them away, the while he stood upon his 
knees before her couch, all naked, even 
as she, without perceiving that his knees 
were laved in her blood, nor that his 
hands were encrimsoned with the scar¬ 
let of her blood. 

Thus, with difficulty, gazing upon 
her beloved and smiling gently, did the 
beautiful Sulamith speak: 

“I thank thee, my king, for all things: 
for thy love, for thy beauty, for thy wis¬ 
dom, to which thou didst allow me to 
set my lips, as to a sweet well of living 


154 


SULAMITH 


waters. Let me to kiss thy hands; take 
them not away from my mouth till such 
time when the last breath shall have fled 
from me. Never has there been, nor 
ever shall there be, a woman happier 
than I. I thank thee, my king, my be¬ 
loved, my fair. Think ever and anon 
upon thy slave, upon thy Sulamith, 
scorched of the sun.” 

And the king made answer to her, in 
a deep, slow voice: 

“As long as men and women shall love 
one another; as long as beauty of soul 
and body shall be the best and sweetest 
dream in the universe,—so long, I swear 
to thee, Sulamith, shall thy name be ut¬ 
tered through many ages with emotion 
and gratefulness.” 

Toward morning Sulamith ceased to 
be. 

Then did the king rise up, command 
the means for laving to be brought to 
him, and, donning his most magnificent 


SULAMITH 


155 


chiton of purple, broidered with golden 
scarabag, he placed upon his head a 
crown of blood-red rubies. After this 
he did call Benaiah to him, and spake 
calmly: 

“Benaiah, thou shalt go and put Eliab 
to death.” 

But the old man covered his face with 
his hands and fell prostrate before the 
king. 

“Eliab is my grandson, O King ” 

“Didst thou hear me, Benaiah?” 

“Forgive me, O King,—threaten me 
not with thy wrath; command some 
other to do this. Eliab, having come 
out of the palace, did run to the temple, 
and caught hold on the horns of the 
altar. I am old, my death is nigh; I 
dare not take upon my soul this twofold 
crime.” 

But the king retorted: 

“Nevertheless, when I did instruct 
thee to put to death my brother Ado- 



156 


SULAMITII 


nijah, who had likewise caught hold on 
the sacred horns of the altar, didst thou 
not hearken to me, Benaiah?” 

“Forgive me! Spare me, King!” 

“Lift up thy face,” commanded Solo¬ 
mon. 

And when Benaiah did raise up his 
face, and beheld the king’s eyes, he quick¬ 
ly rose up from the floor and obediently 
made his way to the exit. 

Then, turning to Ahishar, who was 
the senechal, and over the household, 
he commanded: 

“I do not want to give the queen up 
to death; let her live as she wishes, and 
die when she wishes. But nevermore 
shall she behold my countenance. This 
day, Ahishar, thou shalt fit out a cara¬ 
van and escort the queen to the harbour 
at Jaffa; and thence to ^Egypt, to the 
Pharaoh Shishak. Now let all get 
hence.” 

And, left alone face to face with the 


SULAMITH 


157 


body of Sulamith, he long contemplated 
her beautiful features. Her face was 
pale, and never had it been so fair dur¬ 
ing her life. The half-parted lips that 
Solomon had been kissing but half an 
hour ago were smiling enigmatically 
and beautifully; and her teeth, still hu¬ 
mid, gleamed very faintly from between 
them. 

For long did the king gaze upon his 
dead leman; then, he softly touched 
with his fingers her brow, already los¬ 
ing the warmth of life, and with slow 
steps withdrew from the chamber. 

Beyond the doors the high priest 
Azariah, son of Zadok, was awaiting 
him. Approaching the king, he asked: 

“What shall we do with the body of 
this woman? It is now the Sabbath.” 

And the king recalled how, many 
years ere this, his father had expired 
and lay upon the sand, already beginning 
to decompose rapidly. Dogs, drawn by 


158 


8 ULAMITII 


the scent of carrion, were already prowl¬ 
ing about with eyes glaring from hun¬ 
ger and greediness. And, even as now, 
the high priest, a decrepit old man, the 
father of Azariah, had then asked him: 

“Here lieth thy father; the dogs may 
rend his corpse. . . What are we to do? 
Honour the memory of the king and pro¬ 
fane the Sabbath; or observe the Sab¬ 
bath but leave the corpse of thy father 
to be devoured of dogs?” 

Thereupon Solomon made answer: 

‘‘Leave him. A living dog is better 
than a dead lion.” 

And when now, after the words of 
the high priest, he did recall this, his 
heart did contract from sadness and fear. 

Having made no answer to the high 
priest, he went on, into the Hall of 
Judgment. 

As always of mornings, two of his 
scribes, Elihoreph and Ahiah, were al¬ 
ready reclining upon mats, one on either 


8ULAMITH 


159 


side of the throne, holding in readiness 
their inks, reeds, and rolls of papyrus. 
Upon the king’s entrance they arose and 
salaamed to the ground before him. And 
the king sat down upon his throne of 
ivory with ornaments of gold, leant his 
elbow upon the back of a golden lion, 
and, bowing his head upon his palm, 
commanded: 

“Write!” 

‘Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a 
ring upon thy hand; for love is strong as 
death; jealousy is cruel as hell: the 
arrows thereof are arrows of fire.’ 

And, having kept a silence so pro¬ 
longed that the scribes held their breath 
in alarm, he said: 

“Leave me to myself.” 

And all day, till the first shadows of 
evening, did the king remain alone with 
his thoughts; nor durst any enter the 
vast, empty Hall of Judgment. 

Tamam Shud 


NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR 


[1] The Russian version of the last passage reads: 
“. . . jealousy is cruel as the grave: the arrows 
thereof are arrows of fire.” In this, I have been 
given to understand, it adheres more closely than 
does the English Bible to the original Hebrew. 

[ 2 ] “Which is the second month ...” I KINGS; <vi: 1 . 

[3] “Which is the eighth month. . . ” I KINGS; <vi: 38 . 

[4] “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pic¬ 
tures of silver.” PROVERBS; xx<v:n. 

[5] Abimelech; i. e., Father-King. 




















































































